Harry Hadrian Snape and the Chamber of Secrets
by Rosesythe
Summary: During the summer before Harry's second year, he gets an unexpected visitor in his dreams, warning him of danger to come to Hogwarts. With his dad being more protective of him since last year, an incompetent DADA professor, trying to keep his parselmouth abilities a secret, and searching for the Chamber of Secrets, Harry is in for a rough year. Rest of summary inside.
1. Chapter 1

Summary: During the summer before Harry's second year, he gets an unexpected visitor in his dreams, warning him of danger to come to Hogwarts. With his dad being more protective of him since last year, an incompetent DADA professor, trying to keep his parselmouth abilities a secret, and searching for the Chamber of Secrets, Harry is in for a rough year, once more keeping secrets from his father and friends. How is he going to get through this year?

Ch. 1  
He looked around to see himself in a large chamber. On one end was a statue of a regal looking man, he recognized him as Salazar Slytherin from the history books. He was startled by the sound of something landing on the stone behind him. He was shocked to see a large, almost 20 ft snake. 'It's good to meet you, Harry Snape. I am Bast, familiar of Salazar Slytherin.' the large snake hissed.  
'It's a pleasure to meet you aswell, Bast.' Harry replied to what he realized was a male Baskalisk. 'Where are we?' he asked looking around.  
'You are in the Chamber of Secrets, where my master went after his brief spat with the other founders.' Bast began.  
'Why are we here?' Harry wondered.  
'Well, I live down here. You are here only in conscious.' Bast told him with a snake like grin. 'You need to find my chamber, Harry.'  
'Why, what's wrong?'  
'We're going to need to work together to protect Hogwart's students.' Bast answered.  
'What's going to happen?'  
'I don't know. But I sense a great evil heading here. It's not something that I want to take chances with. I refuse to have a child die if I can protect that child.' Harry nodded his agreement. 'I don't know where my chamber is, but I do know that you can find the answers in Riddle's diary. He was here 50 years ago before he went crazy and went after you. He was very kind and I believe that you could get some answers from it.' Bast explained.  
'Oh. While Tom is getting stronger, he's not strong enough yet to keep up a mental connection for long periods of time. So I can't exactly ask him for the where abouts of the diary.' Harry said with a sigh. 'Will I be able to tell my dad about any of this?'  
'It wouldn't be all that helpful. Only one with Parseltongue abilities can enter my chamber. Only an heir of Slytherin.' Bast said with an eye-ridge raised.  
'H-heir of Slytherin?!' Harry squeaked in surprised disbelief. 'But my birth parents...my mother was a muggle-born!' Harry said weakly.  
'The Evans family is part of a very long line of squibs from my masters line.' Bast replied. 'For a couple hundred years worth, actually. They lost hope of their part of the line ever being magical again and changed their names to a muggle one.' Bast answered.  
'So James POTTER is married to a woman of SLYTHERIN blood?' Harry asked in surprised. Bast nodded with a hissing laugh. 'How can you be positive?' Harry asked cautiously.  
'Because parseltounge is only a Slytherin trait, and can only be passed by blood. It's a sentient gift, and it choses it's possessor.'  
'Could Liam have this gift? And how come Lily didn't recieve it?' Harry asked the large baskalisk.  
'I don't know much on this, but I believe it didn't chose Lily because Lily's magical reserves were just enough for her to have strong magic, and it didn't accept the first of the line with magic in a long time. Liam has such low reserves that the gift could tell it'd be useless on the boy.' Bast answered the best he could. Harry nodded.  
'But I can tell my dad and friends, right?' Harry finally reached the last point he had at the moment.  
'My chamber is secret and I wish for it to remain that way.' Bast gave a deep sigh. 'Besdes, it's not like finding me and my chamber is dangerous.'  
Harry smiled at that. That's true. It's what's heading to Hogwarts that would be. 'Alright I can keep it a secret for now. But if t gets too dangerous, I want to at least tell my dad.' Harry told the snake. Bast nodded.  
'As for the location of the diary, see if that familiar of yours can locate it. He might know.' Harry nodded and said good-bye as he felt his conciousness tug at him. 'I'll try to leave you clues youngling. I will try.'  
Harry awoke in bed at Spinner's End. 'Home.' he realized. He looked out the window as the sun rose on the horizon. He felt Nagi slither to his shoulders. 'Nagi, would you know where to find Riddle's diary?' Harry asked his friend quietly.  
'Nagini told me that the Dark Lord gave the diary to Lucius to take care of.' Nagi answered after a long moment of thinking about it. Harry sighed.  
'That answers about the where, now to talk to him with out letting my dad or the others find out.' Harry hissed to the silver velso. Nagi nodded and the duo continued to watch the sun rise.  
hhshhshhshhshhs  
Severus watched the sun rise as the week before the new term came on them. He was taking Harry shopping for his school supplies today, and he was hoping they could meet Lucius and his family while they were out. He was, after all, going back to Hogwarts tonight after their outting. Harry would be staying with Lucius, Narcissa, and Draco the last week of break. He went upstairs to his son's room, knocking on the door.  
"Come in!" Harry's voice sounded sleepily. He smiled as he entered his son's bedroom. He couldn't help but chuckle. His son was still under the covers. Nagi he could see was on the pillows next to his son's head.  
"Wake up son. We're going into Diagon Alley to do some school shopping today remember? And you'll need to tell Misky what you want to be packed for your week at the Malfoy's." Severus said, laughing as his son bolted from bed, throwing Nagi to the floor in his haste. He could hear the snake hissing in annoyance from the other side of the bed.  
"Just give me a few minutes." Harry gasped out, rushing to get dressed.  
"Just be down at the table in 20 minutes for breakfast son." Severus said with a chuckle.  
"Yes dad." Harry said with a smile, slowing down a little. Severus shook his head, exiting the room. He was already dressed, so he sat down as Misky, the only house-elf in their home, popped in and gave him his normal cup of coffee before popping back into the kitchen. It was in 20 minutes that his son, in a pale blue shirt, black slacks, and black shoes arrived and sat down at the table. His hair went down to his waiste and was currently in a high tail. "Morning dad!" Harry said with a smile, looking refreshed and more awake than he did earlier.  
"Morning son. How did you sleep?" Severus asked.  
"Pretty well, you?"  
"Very well." was the reply. The two ate in silence before getting up and flooing to the Leaky Cauldron. Their first stop was Gringotts. As it had turned out, Hermione and Theo were there. They were already leaving and promised to meet at some point during the day. Probably at Florish and Blotts. After a rough cart ride they were back out in the sun. They ran into Daphne and Neville outside the apothecary, before saying they'd probably meet in Florish and Blotts later with the others. They had run into Blaise at Madam Malkins Robes for all Occasions. A little bit of chatting and Blaise flirting with Harry, much to Severus's annoyance and amusement, they were agreeing to meet in Florish and Blotts with everyone else.  
"Hey dad?" Harry began.  
"Yes Harry?"  
"I was wondering if I could get a broom, so I can try out for the house quidditch team this year." Harry told him, bringing it up for the first time that summer due to him being nervous. It was quiet between the two as they walked and got some treats for Nagi and Hedgewig before his dad finally spoke.  
"How about this Harry, try out for the team on one of the older students brooms. If you can make it on the team on one of the older brooms, then we'll get you a Nimbus 2000. How does that sound?" Severus finally asked. Harry nodded his agreement. It would be a better way to prove to his house that he would deserve that place on the team. "That's good. Now I believe we should head off to Florish and Blotts. That's probably where the others are now." Severus told his son who nodded and they headed off. "What in Merlin's name?" Severus wondered, seeing the large line of witches and wizards.  
"Book signing of Magical Me by Gilderoy Lockhart." Harry read, seeing the poster. "Wait, you mean that fraud?" Harry wondered aloud. Severus's felt his annoyance level raise a few more notches at that.  
"We'll just have to order your books it would seem." Severus said conversationally, his face devoid of all emotion.  
"Come on dad. We already told the others we'd meet them here." Harry laughed and dragged his dad through the crowd and into the shop. They both recoiled at the sight of Gilderoy in bright, gaudy purple robes. Harry shivered, "I'll be having nightmares about this for sure." Harry muttered, when the man smiled, and it seemed to sparkle and be too bright. He was startled out of his musings by being swept into two pairs of arms.  
"Harry!" the owners cried happily, making Harry grin.  
"Forge! Gred! Haven't seen you two all summer!" Harry hugged the twins, musing over how he could easily tell the two apart, yet others had trouble.  
"Same here little snake." the trio of pranksters hadn't pulled there end of year prank due to Harry being in the infirmary. They were interupted by Liam Potter and his parents entering the store, causing everyone to look over in amazement before Lockhart called him to the front with his parents for pictures.  
"I have a little anouncement to make!" Lockhart called, getting everyone's attention. "I would like to anounce that I, Gilderoy Lockhart, will be taking the position of Defense teacher at Hogwarts this upcoming school year." there was applause, and the Potters preaned.  
"I can't believe this." Harry hissed quietly. The twins were nodding with him. The three suddenly looked at each other before grinning and the trio disappeared. Severus pretended not to notice as he spotted the Malfoy's and Harry's friends. Apparently, no one in that group was happy about the announcement either. He joined them, Lucius at once making a request of him.  
"Severus, please keep an eye on our children this year." Severus nodded, smirking as all of the children looked around for Harry.  
"I plan on it Lucius." he drawled.  
"Uncle Severus, where's Hade?" Draco asked, seemingly accusing him of losing his friend. Severus snorted.  
"Harry has disappeared with the Messers Weasley. I believe you'll understand here in only a few moments." he answered quietly. They all locked their eyes at the front of the store, where the Potters and Lockhart still were.  
Suddenly, Liam was in a hot pink, glittering robes. James robes turned emerald and silverin color with snake designs and a brilliantly large sticker that reads 'I love Slytherins' attatched to the fron. Lily's robes turned a brown and black color, her hair stood up, making her look like a campfire as some locks turned yellow and orange. And Gilderoy's robes turned a dull, ugly, worn gray, his hair turned blue, purple, yellow, green, and pink. A large brown smudge appeared on his forehead. The store went into an uproar. And multiple cameras appeared and flashes and yells of outrage went through the shopping center. Harry and the twins easily joining their group in all the chaos.  
"Hey you guys. How's summer been for all of you?" Harry asked as though nothing was happening behind him. He was incased in a tight hug from a laughing Draco. It took atleast a good 40 minutes before everything was under control. Safe to say though that the Potters and Gilderoy disappeared. The group of nine students were talking about their summers when the rest of the Weasleys came over to gather the twins.  
"Oh, if it isn't Weasley. I'm surprised to see you here." Lucius began with a drawl. The twins and Harry just rolled their eyes.  
The twins and Harry found the spat between the two patriarchs childish, but necessary for appearances. They say patrirachs, due to the matriarchs not really having any problems with each other. They just stood to the side to talk as the others seemed interested in the argument taking place. Nagi was currently around Harry's wrist sleeping but aware. "So Harry, we should discuss plans for this year. Especially against Boy Pompous and his parents. And Dumbledor I should think." Fred told the small boy, both having arms around Harry's waist, the easiest grip for them. Harry laughed, getting the two large groups attention.  
"Well, I did find this one spell. It makes your target sing the words that you want them too. We could add with that a dress. Also I found a couple other spells and potions in this old book at Hogwarts last year. Madam Pince allowed me to bring it home with me this summer. I think we should meet at a later date, maybe on the train. We really need to plan this through. And I think we should do a start of term prank. We can do it at the Welcoming Feast." Harry and the twins were so into their conversation about pranks that they were oblivious to the wary looks they were recieving.  
"Alright our favorite little snake, it's a date for the train one week from now." George said. Harry and Fred nodded. Then, after kissing either of Harry's cheeks, they ran off towards the door, leaving their Weasley family in shock, and an annoyed Severus, angry Draco, oblivious Harry, and amused everyone else.  
"Bye you guys!" Harry called as the Weasley family followed the twins and left the shop. Safe to say, Draco wouldn't leave Harry's side and Blaise was laughing at the blonde slytherin's plight of obvious jealousy, but oblivious target of affection. After the group finished at Florish and Blotts, they ate lunch before having to say good bye to eachother. Harry saying good bye to his dad before he ended up leaving with the Malfoys. He was excited about staying with his friend, and it was agreed upon that all of the friends could stay the night at Malfoy Manor the night before leaving for Hogwarts, so they'd all get to leave together. Yes, Harry was very excited about going back to school. Even with the danger that Bast had told him about, which reminded him, he'd have to talk with Uncle Lucius before the week was over, when ever that was.  
hhshhshhshhshhshhshhshhs  
As it turned out, it was the morning their friends were supposed to come that Harry found the chance to talk to Lucius. It was early morning. He had woken up, gently left the bed he was sharing with Draco, and headed towards Lucius's office, seeing as Narcissa was currently in the dining room. Nagi was currently hunting, so Harry was alone on this. With a sigh, he knocked gently on his uncle's office door. "Come in." Lucius's voice was heard. Harry gently opened the door and entered. "Harry? What is it?" Luciusasked surprised.  
"Uncle Luci, Voldemort gave you a small book a while back, before that night, didn't he?" Harry asked, a bit nervously. Lucius was startled, as only Narcissa and Severus knew about that.  
"Harry, how do you know about that?" he asked, having Harry sit with him on the couch. Harry took a deep breath.  
"Well, you see, something's come up. And I need this book to help me with it."  
"What exactly?" Harry looked nervous at this. He honestly hadn't gotten that far here.  
"As you know, I'm a parselmouth." Harry began. Lucius nodded. "Well, I had a dream a while back. And I was in the Chamber of Secrets." Lucius's breath caught at that. The chamber was a secret that wasn't often mentioned and definately shouldn't be known about by a child. "I met Salazar Slytherin's familiar, Bast. Bast wanted me to find him. It's Bast's job to protect the students of Hogwarts. And he's been nervous since what happened last year. Students got hurt last year, and honestly, having Bast would've been a big help! He told me that Tom's book would help me to find him. And Nagi told me how Nagini told him that Tom gave it to you. It's really important Uncle Lucius, and I'd like to look at it. I'll be careful! And I promise that it's nothing dangerous, just to look for it. Bast has been alone for over 50 years, and I know what it's like to be that lonely, uncle. And I don't think he should be alone like that anymore! So please can you give me the book? It's not like Tom'll mind." Harry finished, saying most of his speech in a single breath or two. Lucius looked at the small 12 year old boy.  
'Small even after 6 years. Strong and independent. But would it be a good idea to give it to him. I mean, not even I've figured out how to use it. But maybe he can. I'm sure that, should I say no, he'd find away to get ahold of it anyways.' Lucius gave a deep sigh, making Harry's hope go up. Looking into the boy's eyes, he asked. "You're not doing anything dangerous?" he asked.  
"No. Just looking for the chamber to find Bast." Harry promised. Lucius searched his face for any lie, but found none.  
"I'm taking it, though, that you're not going to tell your dad or friends?" Harry shook his head.  
"No. Bast's chamber is secret, and he wants it to remain that way. He especially doesn't want Dumbledore to find it. The Chamber of Secrets is the safe haven of many, well, secrets. And Dumbledore would probably kill to get a hold of them." Harry told Lucius earnestly. Lucius was in deep thought for a few moments before finally, and a little relunctantly, nodding. "Thank you so much Uncle Luci!" Harry said, hugging the tall blonde. Lucius gave a small chuckle, returning the hug.  
"But Harry, I should let you know, I have conditions." Harry nodded, expecting that. "Good, now, I don't know how his diary works. You'll need to figure that out on your own. Next, you must becareful. You won't do anything reckless. You must also promise me that should anything take a sour turn, you will tell your dad and me. Those are my only requests for giving the diary to you." Lucius told him gravely and seriously.  
"I promise Uncle Lucius." Harry told him. The Malfoy head nodded before going to a secret compartment in his desk and removing a small dark book.  
"Here you are then, Harry. Remember your promises." Lucius told him. When the boy promised, he allowed the boy to take the diary. "Now, I expect my son is up and probably looking for you. Off you go and be down for breakfast in an hour. You guy's friends should be over around noon, a little before lunch time." Harry nodded. And with one last hug, the boy ran off. Lucius chuckled, going back to his work.  
Noon arrived sooner than any one had planned and the Malfoy Manor had seven children in it. The group spent all day flying, exploring the gardens, and going around the manor playing explorers. Lunch passed by quickly and evening came on them where the two Malfoy adults and seven children were sitting down in the sitting room. "So what do you guys think or want for the upcoming school year?" Hermione couldn't help but ask. "I want to have more on hands experience in classes." she said.  
"I want to join the quidditch team." Daphne and Draco said.  
"I want to learn about something other than the goblin rebellions." Theo muttered.  
"I want to discover new plants in the green houses." Neville admitted to the group.  
"I want to get Harry into a leather outfit." Blaise said lecherously, making Draco bristle and Harry roll his eyes.  
"I want to see new magical creatures. Like some centaurs or achromantulas!" Harry admitted wistfully, not noticing everyone's shared, knowing looks. Lucius and Narcissa made it a point to write Severus and tell him to keep his son away from the forest.  
The group spent the rest of the night talking about everything they could get away with doing to the Potters and Ron Weasley before they finally went to bed in their sleeping bags in the large living room, the only light coming from the crackling fireplace. Once everyone was asleep, Harry looked into the diary he got from Lucius. After looking through it for a couple hours, he gave up, had Dobby put it in his trunk, and went to join the others in dream land. He was really looking forward to tomorrow.


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: Here's the next chapter! Thanks again to S for being an awesome Beta. It's a little shorter, but I'll work on making them a little bit longer here on out. Thanks for the reviews as well. Please Review.

Disclaimer: Don't own anything Harry Potter.

Ch. 2  
It was a little hectic the next morning as the group got ready for heading to King's Cross. It was more difficult with only two adults looking after seven children, no matter how mature the children were. It took a couple hours before they were fully ready and they finally left. Whe they arrived, Lucius and Narcissa said goodbye to the children who hurried onto the train, so they could find a good carpartment and not have to suffer the Potter's idiocy as they soon arrived on the platform.  
"Becareful this year kids. I don't want to recieve letters from Severus telling us you turned Gryffindor and ran into the Forbidden Forest or went after, oh a great and powerful evil again. And I'm sure your parents would agree to this. Understand?" Narcissa told them with a stern look that would put McGonagal to shame.  
"Yes ma'am!" the group told her. None of them noticed Lucius's and Harry's exchanged looks. After saying good bye once more, they got into their compartment as the train pulled out of the station.  
"It's great to be going back to Hogwarts." Harry murmurred in a relaxed state, the others nodding in agreement. They talked together as the train rolled through the city, leading them into the country. It was a little after one in the afternoon that Harry seperated from the group to meet up with the twins. As he looked for the twins, Nagi giving directions, he ended up running right into Liam Potter and Ronald Weasley. As it turned out, there was another Weasley with the boys and that was the only girl, Ginerva, or Ginny.  
"Watch it!" the trio growled, Ginny quickly fitting into the duo due to her crush on Liam.  
"Well if it isn't the girly freak of the snake den." Liam taunted, realizing who it was they were facing. Harry silently groaned.  
"Well well, if it isn't the Boy Who Lived to be an Idiot." Harry retorted. "Please leave me alone so I can go make my meeting." Harry said, barely hiding his annoyance.  
"I don't think so you freak." Ron told him.  
"Seriously, having a gender crisis Snape?" Ginny scoffed at the boy who looked like a girl. 'He's a boy! Why is he prettier than me!' Ginny growled to herself. 'Atleast I'm taller.' she thought relieved.  
"Please Ginerva, jealousy isn't becoming of a- well, actually, it is becoming of a harpy such as yourself. Just leave me out of it, and go back to your drooling on the Boy Idiot." Harry said in a sophisticated attitude.  
"Don't go talking about my sister that way you freak!" Ron growled, aiming a punch at Harry. Harry quickly ducked, causing Ron's fist to slam into a wall. "Arrg!" he cried in pain. Harry couldn't bring himself to feel sorry for Ron and his now broken hand, but he also had to focus on ducking Liam's fist aimed at him. But he didn't think to consider Ginerva a threat, so was wholy unprepared for the taller but younger girl to tackle him into the wall, his head snapping back. Ginny was stronger than he was and it was irksome.  
Before anything more could happen, Liam, Ron, and Ginny were hit with a repulsion charm, sending them away from Harry. They all looked over to see the twins and Lee Jordan, a pranking buddy with whom they were going to introduce to Harry. "Wait until we tell mum that you attacked a smaller student." Fred said with glee.  
"He called Gin a harpy!" Ron cried in anger. The trio looked at eachother before shrugging.  
"She screams like one." Fred and George agreed matter of factly, shocking their siblings and Liam. "Now come on Harry. We have a lot to discuss." with that the three older Gryffs and Harry disappeared down the hall into their own compartment. Once in, the twins and Lee put up silencing and privacy charms and they began introductions after making sure Harry was alright.  
"It's nice to finally meet you Harry." Lee said, shaking the smaller boys hand. Harry nodded.  
"It's great to meet you aswell. I heard your commenting during the quidditch matches last year. I knew at once I liked you." Harry told him.  
"Are you planning to join the Slytherin team?" Fred asked. Harry nodded quickly.  
"Yup! I'm going to try out. I just hope I can make it." Harry admitted.  
"Which position?" Lee asked.  
"Seeker." the group nodded, remembering Harry's skills on a broom from his classes last year. "So, about our beginning of the year prank." Harry began. The other threes' faces lit up and planning began in great lengths and details. They were at it for over an hour when there was a knock on the compartment door.  
"Who is it?" Fred asked, confused for a moment as they dropped the wards they had put up.  
"It is Draco Malfoy! I demand my best friend back in his original compartment! He's been stuck with you two lechers long enough!" Draco's flustered and annoyed voice sounded. Harry opened the compartment, laughing as Draco latched onto his arm and started dragging him through the halls.  
"Bye you guys! Remember the plan!" Harry called out to the trio. He heard their affirmations through their laughter. He looked at his friend, lately he had noticed that Draco had become super protective of him- more so than he usually was. "Are you okay Dray?" Harry suddenly asked, realizing his friend was just now relaxing.  
"Yah, just don't like you being out of my sight for too long." Draco said with a sigh.  
"Aww. Dray cares about me. You do. Admit it." Harry teased his best friend. He gave a small chuckle as Draco's cheeks turned pink.  
"Shut up Hade." Draco mumbled. Harry laughed as they entered their compartment. They had almost arrived, when the voice from last year called through out the train, into the compartments and hallways.  
"We will arrive at Hogwarts in five minutes! Leave your luggage on the train and it will be taken up to the school seperately." the message repeated a couple times before the students started moving around. The girls left to go get changed while the boys stayed in their compartment.  
"Let's go!" Harry cried happily as the train stopped. The group of friends nodded and left the train, heading towards the carriges. He stopped short as he saw the threstals. 'How can I see them? Who did I watch die?' he wondered. Thinking on it, he realised it was Quirrel's death at the end of the school year last year. 'Huh. To think that he's the reason I can see these magnificent creatures.' Harry wondered, seeing Nagi appear at the edge of his vision. The silver snake shrank to that of a bracelet and attatched himself to his wrist.  
 _'Be careful snakelet. I have a feeling of something bad coming this way._ ' Nagi hissed. _'And I believe we should make sure your parselmouth abilities is best kept under wraps since we're searching for the chamber.'_ Nagi added when Harry went to answer. Harry nodded and joined his friends in the carriage. Surprised it could fit all 7 of them. It was with a relaxed and comfy atmosphere that the group soon arrived at the front doors of Hogwarts and they all stepped out going towards the doors and soon going to their tables after saying good bye for the moment.  
They all talked with their tables as they waited for the first years to arrive. They only had a few minutes of waiting before McGonagal arrived with the stool and hat. Harry looked at the hat and smiled fondly at the memory he had of talking with the ancient object. A few minutes after that, McGonagal arrived once more with the group of first years. He was able to spot Ginny at once, her flaming red hair sticking out in the blonds, browns, and black through out the group.  
McGonagal stepped forward as the hat's song finished. "When I call your name, you willl step forward and place the hat on your head. When it calls out the name of your house you will go to sit down at the table of that house." she called to the first years. "Amin, Racet" she called, starting the sorting as a boy with blonde hair stepped forward. He was the first Ravenclaw. As the sorting continued,'Colin Creevey' became the first Gryffindor, 'Deerla, Candice' became the first Hufflepuff. And 'Marrow, Seth' became the first Slytherin. They were all enthusiastic about the boy, who had jet black hair, bright blue eyes, and tan skin. He smiled shyly, sitting down in front of Harry, who had Draco and Blaise on either side of him.  
"Welcome to the table of snakes Seth. We're the best house in here." Harry told the boy with a small smile. The boy returned it and felt relaxed at once, thanks to the kind Harry.  
"Thanks." they all returned back to the sorting. 'Lovegood, Luna' bacame a Ravenclaw. 'Hane, Lorin', 'Ichiro, Jermi', 'Kastor, Hildy', 'Orlif, Kon', and 'Morose, Susy' became their final Slytherins. Harry rolled his eyes as Ginny became a Gryffindor and that ended the sorting.. He looked over the heads in the hall towards the twins and Lee who were also catching his attention. They all gave very soft nods.  
Dumbledor stood up, and the crowd quieted. "First years, welcome to Hogwarts. To our returners, welcome back. I'd like to tell you that the Forbidden Forest is still off limits." Severus from his spot looked at his son in warning while Dumbledor was looking at the twins. "And it is my pleasure to introduce Gilderoy Lockhart, our new Defence teacher. Also Mr. Filch has apparantly taken some of his banned items off his list. So go to his office to see what is now allowed once more." he said, to the shock of all the students save Harry. Harry and the care taker had talked at the end of the year last year and it had been a good talk about how somethings were less dangerous and messy. "With that, I'd like to say 'mitle combic, nitwik, twisk' enjoy." Dumbledor told them as the plates filled with food.  
Harry gave a soft smile as the first years looked around in awe at all the food. It was about half-way through dinner that he caught his fellow pranksters eyes before slowly pulling out his wand and aiming through the gap under the tables. He saw them do it as well. It was only a few minutes before they saw the effects take place. He pretended to be shocked about the startled cries from the Gryffindor table, or the loud shriek that came from one red-headed girl. The two weasley children were inraged. Ginny's hair was no longer long, but short, raggy, and oily, looking on fire. Her clothes were bright green and red, clashing against each other and her hair, and her teeth were now over her lip. Her nose was also the size of a tomato.  
Ronald was in a maroon dress that went to the ground with white lace that clashed horribly with his hair. His hair went to his shoulders and he had on a lot of heavy makeup. Liam was in a pink dress that showed off his fat and clashed with his hair. He also had makeup on and he wore heels. His fat stubby ankles were shown off quite well. It got even better. The three Gryffindors stood up and started singing horribly off key.  
''Slytherins are amazing. Wish we could be one. But we are cowardly bullies, with no cunning in between us. Oh if only we could be in Slytherin, or even in Hufflepuff or Ravenclaw. But we are not loyal, we'll stab you in the back. And we don't read, libraries are a disease. These are the truth as we see. We only care about our selves. We could care less about the rest, just in the spotlight, we should be." then the trio turned red as they ran out of the room, what looked like a tiny snake on their shoulders. The trio discovered the snakes right as they reached the doors and screamed, throwing them off of them before leaving. The boys tripping on their dress hems. It was amusing because the Potter teachers left the room to find their son and his friends.  
It was quiet for only a moment before the large group of students burst into such rancous laughter. The rest of the dinner was spent talking about the prank of the two bullies and the girl. They were all talking about the prank and who they all guessed had a part to play. Everyone knew that the twins had a part, they suspected Harry and Lee also had a part, but they couldn't know for sure. It was soon after the desserts disappeared that Dumbledor told them to trot off to bed, to have first years follow the Prefects. Harry was feeling ultimately giddy with joy, after saying night to the others, when he went to bed that night, drawing the curtains to try and sleep. Nagi curled up next to him and hissed softly. _'Maybe you should look at the diary again snakelet._ ' Harry nodded and drew out the small book, as he wasn't all that tired. He used the revealing spell, he used the reverse spell. But neither worked, He thought maybe the reveal eraser might work and used it. There was absolutely nothing. Fustrated but still in a good mood, he went to bed so he'd be ready for classes the next day.

A/N: So review and let me know what you think. Thanks.


	3. Chapter 3

A/N: Here's the next chapter everyone! Thanks for the reviews, I'm really flattered by them. Thanks to S for beta-ing the chapter. I have most of the year planned out so I'm excited about this. Enjoy and remember to Review! The reviews help a lot.

Disclaimer: Don't own Harry Potter. Will put this in every few chapters.

Chapter 3  
The first week was nice and methodic. It was also a relief to be back at Hogwarts and back near his dad. It was in Harry's mind, anyways. They had gone to their classes and had no problem, in fact, their first potions class would be coming up soon. So far though, the only class that had been a disappointment was Defense. Just as they thought it would be. All Lockhart really did was tell them about himself and re-enact different scenes from his books. Usually with Harry, embarrassing as it was.  
The prank on the bully trio, as that's what they were becoming, was all that was talked about outside of classes and homework. Harry would chuckle when he passed the twins and Lee, as they would preen under his gaze. It drove Draco crazy, but he thought it was funny. He would laugh when ever someone quoted the song lyrics to one of the trio.  
It was Friday, the last day of classes before their first weekend back. All they had that day was going to be potions in the morning and it was a free day after lunch. So after a hearty breakfast, Harry, Draco, and Blaise headed down to the dungeons, saying good bye to Theo, Hermione, Neville, and Daphne. They agreed to meet up at the hall for lunch and discussing weekend plans. They would have it free, seeing as how they were always able to finish their homework on the nights they recieved the assignments. They were waiting with their fellow second year Slytherins when the Gryffindors finally arrived, Liam and Ronald leading the way for the second years as a whole.  
"I still don't care for potions." Liam sneered at the name of the subject, as though it was beneath him. "I still think it's a stupid class that's just a waste of time. It shouldn't even be required here." he said tauntingly, making the Gryffs nod enthusastically while the Slytherins hissed, very remineisent of the reptile that identified their house.  
"If I remember correctly, Potter, you have to take potions for your obesity and I believe that you take a potion all the times you're sick with the flu or something. If we didn't have potions, you'd be stuck healing the muggle way, shots in your bum and even more disgusting tasting medicine." Harry supplied in a bored drawl. "In fact, you should be sent away to the muggle world, you could learn somethings. You're not contributing much to our world anyways." Harry told the large boy, knowing how he hated muggles. Hell, Slytherins were more tolerant of muggles and muggle borns than Liam was, and Liam's mom-to everyone else- was a muggle born. He smirked as Liam's face turned red in his anger.  
"You'll pay Snape." Liam growled, drawing his wand and pointing it at Harry. He fired a weak freezing charm at the boy, just as Severus opened the door to the potions lab. Every student froze as Snape waved his hand and the spell slammed into a wall, a thin sheet of ice glazing over the dark bricks, expanding a ways as the walls were also damp, which meant had it hit Harry, it would've done a bit more damage than they all originally thought.  
"Mr. Potter," Severus began, his voice was colder than the freezing spell, and all of the students backed away from said child and his little friend. "What is the meaning of firing that type of spell at a fellow student? What is the meaning of assulting my son?" even Harry found himself surprised at how dark and cold his dad's eyes went as he looked at the fat kid. He realized a while back that his dad was far more protective of him recently, especially after he almost died last year. He also decided it was in his best intrest to remain completely silent at the moment until he was addressed.  
"He was telling me that I should go live with muggles and that I wasn't contributing anything to my world." Liam growled. Everyone was thinking Liam had a death wish.  
"It is not just your world Potter, despite how delusional you may be. It is a world that belongs to every child, adult, and creature here. But that still doesn't give you the right to attack a fellow student in the hallways. Much less _my_ son in front of _my_ own classroom." Severus's voice was low and deadly, making the students shiver. "Must I again tell you that the better man would walk away, much less just use words?"  
The man paused for a moment thinking before he added, "And to be honest, you must have said or done something to provoke Harry, as my son isn't the type to just start a quarrel with another student, no matter how disgusting and dispacable said student may be." Severus told him. Everyone knew Harry would defend his dad and favorite subject-Potions, which was closely followed by Transfiguration- just as much as he would his friends, if any were slandered on. So Harry was in the right about this. When Potter didn't answer, he looked to his Slytherins. "What was it that Potter said or did to provoke my son, Ms. Parkinson?" he asked.  
"He said Potions was a stupid class and waste of time and that it shouldn't even be required. Harry then told him how he had to use potions for his obesity and any time he got sick, and that if we didn't have potions, we'd be getting muggle treatments, such as shots in the bum and even more disgusting medicines. All of which are slower to take effect, than potions." she answered dutifully. He nodded.  
"Thank you Ms. Parkinson. It seems to me, Mr. Potter, that Harry was in the right this time. Now, as punishment for attacking my son, you'll have detention all weekend." Liam spluttered in disbelief.  
"B-but that's not FAIR!" he cried. Severus glared.  
"Make that next weekend as well. You are to report to my classroom at 8 am sharp tomorrow morning. We'll discuss your duties then. I probably have rats that need their spleens harvested. Come along, we're already 5 minutes behind schedule and you'll need all the time you can get to complete this assignment." Severus told them, leading them into the classroom. "Today we're going to brew a shrinking potion. If done correctly, it should just reverse what it's used on to an earlier form. Can I have an example?" he asked the class. He looked at Liam, who had no idea when called upon. "Very well. Harry?' he asked.  
"If used on a toad, it'll revert back to a tadpole." Harry answered.  
"Very good, 15 points to Slytherin." Severus said with a smirk. "Everything you need to know is here on the board. Please follow these instructions precisely. We may just test a couple of these on some familiars or pets." he smirked at the horrified looks on the Gryffindor faces. "Well, you have only a few hours left, hurry." he told the class with a raised eye brow. The Slytherin students smirked as the Gryffindors rushed to get to the cupboard, not even checking the board first. Soon the class was working silently and fervently on their potions. According to their books aswell as the instructions on the board, the potion should be orange in color.  
It was almost time for class to end, and Severus went through on his threat to test it on pets. As it turned out, Liam had a pet owl. Severus took pleasure in testing the potion on the owl. Harry was actually releived that the potion was useless and did't hurt the owl. Liam lost 5 points, as did any duo who didn't get the potions right, or even close. All the Slytherins got 5 points for getting it correctly. It was in good spirits that the slytherins left for lunch. Harry, Draco, and Blaise joining their friends at the Hufflepuff table. They all talked about their classes that day when Hedgewig flew down to them, an envelope attatched to her leg.  
"It's from Hagrid." Harry said happily, recognizing the messy scrawl as he let Hedgewig eat some of the grapes from his plate. She loved fruit.  
'Everyone,  
Why don't you all come down after lunch and visit. I'd like to hear about your first week back. Besides, Fang misses yall.  
Hagrid'  
"Lets head down!" Daphne said happily. Harry and Hermione nodding as they were closest to the half-giant. It was with light hearts that Harry and the others headed down to Hagrids hut. They knocked excitedly on the door, grinning like fools, similar to Hagrid as he opened the door to let them in.  
"Hey Hagrid!" the kids all shouted happily, all hugging the large man, who hugged them back at the same time. Fang barked happily at the side, jumping around the group of children in his excitement. It was when Hagrid released them that they spotted Nagi in a batch of sunlight, he was at his full length of 20 ft, curled up.  
 _'I was wondering where you had went off too Nagi._ ' Harry hissed softly. While none of them could understand what was being said, from their tones they could catch the drift of the conversations between boy and snake.  
 _'I was wondering when you'd show up. I've been here for hours. And remember, we want to keep your ability under wraps. It's amazing we've been able to keep it in the bag as long as we have.'_ Nagi hissed back. Harry nodded, going back to his friends.  
"So what did Nagi have to say?" Hermione asked curiously.  
"Well, Nagi wants to keep my parselmouth ability a secret for now. He's surprised that it's been kept under wraps from the student body for as long as it has. He wants to see how long it'll last." Harry explained at their concerned looks. They accepted it at once and Harry gave a soft smile at his friends. The group spent time talking.  
"So Charlie's kept me updated on Norberta," Hagrid began.  
"How is she? We haven't heard much." Daphne said at once.  
"She's growing very quickly. She's one of the larger year old hatchlings. She's been doing well and should be able to shoot a decent stream of fire here before too long." Hagrid answered with a proud smile.  
"It's got to be thanks to you taking such good care of her that first month Hagrid." Hermione told the man.  
"You mean 'We' Hermione. You, Daphne, and Harry here were a big help." Hagrid told the three of them, though also including the other boys. They continued about the growth rates of dragons and other creatures.  
"Hey Hagrid?" Harry began.  
"Yes Harry?" Hagrid motioned for him to continue.  
"I was wondering about the threstals. You know, the ones that pull the carriages." Harry told him.  
"Oh. So you can see them?" he asked while the others were confused.  
"Yup." Harry saw the confused looks on the others faces so he explained with Hagrids help. "Threstals are skeletal horses." Harry said. "They're black and white, made of bone with black manes, tails, and white eyes, no pupils. They also have sharp teeth, as they eat meat." Harry told them.  
"And what makes them even more impressive, is that only people who have seen death can see them. It's a magnificent concept, as threstals are horses of the dead." Hagrid finished explaining. The group looked at each other in bewilderment.  
"Who did you see die, Hagrid?" Harry asked curiously.  
"I saw my pa die of a muggle disease." he explained.  
"Sorry Hagrid. That was inappropriate to ask-" Harry began, but Hagrid waved him off.  
"It's alright Harry. That was when I was a teenager. I'm fine now. But who did you see die?" Hagrid asked.  
"I believe it came from watching Quirrel die last year, when what ever was possessing him left his body. I watched him crumble into dust. That's the only one I can think of." Harry shrugged. He had nightmares about that night the first week after returning home from school. He was okay now, no psychological damage done to him. Hagrid nodded his acceptance to that fact.  
"I'm sorry you all had to go through that." Hagrid told them. They shook their heads.  
"It wasn't your fault Hagrid, we were going to go after him anyways." Blaise told him with a grin, making Hagrid pale.  
"Well you shouldn't have. And it was also unfair of McGonagal to not listen to you then. You could've been saved from near death experiences for crying outloud." Hagrid grumbled. They all gave little laughs at his disgruntlement. They talked into the night, Nagi disappearing at some point during the conversation. It was dinner time when they all went up to the castle, Hagird joining them. Harry saw his dad giving him a stern look that he gave a sheepish grin in return. After a delicious dinner, students went to either the library or common rooms to finish their homework. Harry was heading to the library by himself, as Draco and Blaise had earned a detention with Filch from McGonagal that night due to an argument in her class the day before. Hermione and Theo had promised to help some first years along with the rest of their year in Ravenclaw. Daphne and Neville were meeting with an older student in their common room so they could ask some questions.  
Harry walked alone as Nagi, he guessed, was hunting in the forest. He was almost towards the library when he saw the cats. It was Mrs. Norris, and the cat from his first transfiguration lesson. The one he couldn't find the rest of his first year. He grinned when Mrs. Norris saw him and leaped over to him, the other cat gave an annoyed sounding hiss before following the other cat to the boy. Though he did notice she stayed a little bit farther from him.  
"Hey girl. I haven't ran into you until now. It's great to see you again Mrs." he told Filch's familiar who was purring at the boy. "I missed you too. So, who's your friend?" he asked softly, not wanting to scare either cat. He knew how to handle creatures. He honestly couldn't wait for care of magical creatures next year. "No need to be scared, come on over here girl." Harry said softly, coaxing the other cat over with Mrs Norris's help. The cat seemed to roll her eyes before coming over. Harry grinned as he petted the two felines who were both purring as he rubbed between their ears. He didn't know how long he was petting the two felines when a voice sounded behind him.  
"Well well! If it isn't Severus's son! I've heard alot about you Mr. Snape!" that voice could only belong to one fraud.  
"Run and save yourselves." he whispered to the cats. They ignored him and stayed next to his ankles as he stood, stiff from crouching for so long. "Good evening Professor Lockhart." Harry told the man.  
"Oh, you are so well mannered. Severus must have raised you right." Lockhart said jovially. Harry nodded. Yes, his dad did raise him correctly. "But I must say Mr. Snape, that you and young Mr. Potter seem to have problems with one another. I heard about what happened infront of the potions lab. You must realize that it was unfair to blame him completely and not take any blame yourself, right?" Lockhart said in what he assumed was supposed to be a disappointed and reasoning tone of voice.  
"He said potions was a useless subject and waste of time, Professor. I just pointed out that if we didn't have potions, we'd be stuck healing the old fashioned muggle way. I may have let slip that he had yet to bring anything to our world and he could learn something from living as a muggle for awhile, I'll admit that, but when someone disses what I care about and the people I love, I can't help but get defensive." Harry told the man. Lockhart looked at him strangely before he continued.  
"That was wrong of you, Mr. Snape. You shouldn't say mean things to your peers." Lockhart told him.  
"Well, Liam also shouldn't bully those weaker and smaller than him, but he does that all the time. Why don't you get onto him about that, sir, if you want to talk about fairness."  
"Oh Mr. Potter has a lot on his shoulder, being the defeater of you-know-who, Mr. Snape. He's allowed to unwind every now and then."  
"I wouldn't care if he was Merlin reincarnated, Prof. But treating others like dirt beneath his feet isn't right. Hurting children who can't defend themselves is not right, even if you are a famous git like Liam. So unless you take care of his bullying like my father and the other professors try to, then you have no right to talk to me about fairness sir." Harry told him adamantly.  
"I don't like back talk Mr. Snape. Detention with me tomorrow night. Be in my office at 7 pm then." Lockhart told him with a smirk. With that he walked off, both cats bristled and hissed at his retreating form, making him speed up as they chased after him. Harry wasn't worried about Lockhart hurting the cats, as they had more magical prowess together than Lockhart did.  
'Oh well, guess I'll just have to go to the detention.' Harry mumbled to himself, continuing towards the library. Considering it was the first week of school, Harry was surprised that there weren't more students inside. The few that were, were mostly Ravenclaws and first years. He strolled through the creatures section and found a book on basilisks(and other creatures) and a book on enchanted and magical books. After getting the books he headed down to the common room. Upon entering, and not seeing his friends, he decided to just head up to his dorm room. It too was empty so he just started reading about basilisks. He learned about how they were hatched, that they could go a couple hundred years without food, that they tended to stay in damp places and could travel in tight spaces. After that, he finished up his potions homework and went to sleep. He only awoke a couple times later when his dorm mates came into the room to go to bed, but that was it.  
Draco and the others were furious when he told them of his detention that night with Lockhart. They were going to go hang out in the room of requirement that night, but now Harry wouldn't be apart of their own little 'Back at Hogwarts' party. It was depressing.  
"Sorry guys, but I don't think I could get out of it. He'd just give me a worse one later." Harry said. "But we can try it tomorrow afternoon. How does that sound? I'll probably need the cheering up tomorrow, any detention with Lockhart is bound to make someone want to knock themselves out." Harry insisted. The group nodded glumly, but cheered up as they were going to be able to hang out by the lake that day. They were going to wade and eat a picnic. The group of friends talked about everything they could think of, played tag, and played hide and seek. Harry noticed that the squid was also getting closer to the shores, which made him smile. Once it was close enough, he started tickling the squids tentacles. The other soon joining him.  
It was almost dinner time when the group finally headed inside the castle. After dinner, Harry headed on up to Lockhart's office while the others went to the library. He knocked on the door. "Come in." Lockhart's voice called. Harry took a deep breath and entered the office, preparing for what ever hell could be thrown at him.

A/N: There it is. What did you think? Let me know in your reviews.


	4. Chapter 4

A/N: I'm back. I'll be doing the chapters in months now, so this is the entire month of October. Depending on what I have planned for the month, some chapters will be shorter while others are longer. I hope you like this chapter. And thanks to S for being an awesome beta! Remember to review.

Chapter 4- October

Harry didn't know what he had been expecting when he entered the DADA office. He figured that he should have seen this coming though, considering the man was a complete narcissist. The walls all had framed pictures of himself on them. Every where Harry looked, there was a picture of Lockhart in bright gaudy robes with an overly bright smile. He saw all of them sneering at him. They were looking at him with a look similar to how Vernon had looked at him-with disgust, like he was beneath him- and it occurred to him then. Maybe he should be more careful, because despite Lockhart being an idiotic fraud, he was still a fully grown wizard with more knowledge and experience up his sleeve than a scrawny 12 year old who looked 10 still.  
"Ah, Mr. Snape, good to know you can be punctual." Lockhart said with a sneer, though his voice was light. Harry stayed silent. "Your job, Mr. Snape, is to polish and clean all the frames in the room." Harry looked around, there were about 25 frames in total. The majority taller and wider than he was. He took a deep breath. "Get started Mr. Snape." Lockhart indicated the cleaning supplies, going back to answering his fan mail, and Harry got to work. Harry, while polishing and shining the large silver frames, had unknowingly settled into his mannerism from when he was four. He made sure to stay quiet, keep his head down, focus on his task, and do a thorough job.  
It was easier than one would think, even if he hadn't been made to polish anything or do any real house work since Severus saved him. All he had to do was keep his room clean and clean up any mess he made. It was made easy to fall back into that age 4-6 mind set, because despite doing a spotless job, the portraits sneered and belittled him. Scoffed at his work, 'You missed a spot boy.' one portrait sneered at him. That was something Petunia or Vernon would have said to him while he was working. Harry involuntarily flinched at the word. Seeing this, the other portraits did the same. Harry blocked them out with difficulty, continuing with his task. At last he was on the final frame, and he was honestly getting sick of listening to Lockhart going on and on about how famous he and Liam Potter were. How they would be an unstoppable fame duo. Mentor and student.  
Just as he was about to finish the portrait, something dark and evil suddenly flooded his senses, causing him to jerk and smear silver polish on the glass. "Watch it boy!" the portrait and real Lockhart growled at him. Harry flinched, quickly removing the smear. "Oh my, will you look at the time. You should hurry back to your common room, it's almost curfew." Lockhart waved him off, acting as though he hadn't just snapped angrily at the small boy vehemently. Harry nodded and rushed out of the room.  
The evil was gone now, but he kept running. He ran from the room, trying to run from past memories that were threatening to over whelm him. He was in the entrance hall when he finally stopped to catch his breath. He had thought that he'd be past that, but obviously he wasn't. 'Damn Lockhart!' Harry seethed to himself. 'Stupid fraud.' He took a couple more deep breaths before he stood and calmly headed back to the dungeons. 'I'll be fine.' Harry thought to himself, entering his common room. He got a couple looks, but that was it. He had entered the common room just at curfew. 'I'll be fine.' he repeated to himself, shoving the experience to the back of his mind as he joined his friends in a game of gob stones. Harry really should've realized that he was just kidding himself.  
It was in the wee hours of the morning that Harry jolted awake, breathing heavily as he pushed the memories back. "I'm fine. They're gone and they can't ever hurt me again." Harry whispered to himself. "Just a nightmare. I'm fine. The dreams are over." he whispered softly to himself. Hearing Blaise and Draco shift in their beds, he cast a simple silencing charm so they wouldn't hear him. 'Just in case.' he thought, laying back down. 'I'm safe. It's not like Lockhart will hurt me.' Harry reasoned. As he settled down to try and go back to sleep, he wondered why he had a bad feeling about Lockhart, the evil he had felt, and the foreboding feeling he had for this year.  
Before anyone in the group could believe it, October was on them, and with that month, came house quidditch team tryouts. Harry, Draco, Daphne, and Theo were all excited, having looked forward to the tryouts. The first house to do tryouts was Gryffindor. Harry found out from the twins and Lee that Liam had made it onto the team as seeker with a nimbus 2001. They told him the main reason was because Liam was famous and they believed that they wouldn't be defeated by anyone anyways, what with Gryffindor holding the Quidditch trophy for the past 7 years.  
Next was the Ravenclaws. Theo had been really excited and done well. He had gotten a nimbus 2000 from his dad as a birthday present last year and he was always good with reading others and made an excellent keeper. He beat the others by at least 3 goals.  
After them it was Hufflepuff that had their tryouts. Daphne, as it turned out, had one heck of an arm on her. She was bringing down the targets left and right as they moved. She made an excellent beater and the Hufflepuff captain was exuberant.  
Finally the Slytherins started their tryouts. First they started with keepers, followed by beaters, next was chasers, which Draco was trying out for. They did chaser drills and Draco and a fourth year were the two new chasers as there was a fifth year one still on the team. Finally it was time for seekers to try out. The Slytherins last seeker had been a seventh year that left last year, so Harry and a couple others were trying for this position. The other two had better brooms than Harry did, but Harry still had faith in his abilities. So a minute after Captain Flint released the snitch, Harry shot off into the air, closely followed by the other two. Harry circled around before his eyes spotted the snitch and flew down after it. The other two followed him, the snitch was by the ground and it was a straight dive down. Almost to the ground, the other two flew away. A second before he would've hit the ground, Harry grabbed the snitch and flew straight and leveled out. He landed softly on the grass and Flint came and told him he was on the team, but that he needed to avoid the death stunts like that. Harry agreed and all three of their houses celebrated and congratulated their new quidditch members.  
But now that the quidditch tryouts were finished in the first week of October, their work piles loaded up as half of the people in their group had quidditch practice twice a week now. It was made easy like that due to Gryffindor only practicing once a week, though the twins and a couple chasers snuck out and did their own practices, they knew Liam would be useless for their team.  
The next few weeks were getting harder for Harry as well. He still hadn't figured out the diary, much to his frustration, though he kept Uncle Lucius updated any ways as he promised. Add onto that, Lockhart was going out of his way to get Harry into a detention. So far, the man hadn't succeeded, but he was getting close. Harry honestly didn't know if he was going to be able to keep out of trouble with the man. He knew he was just waiting for him to slip up.  
All through this, Liam and his parents and the Gryffs were strutting around the castle, as though they were running it. The 2nd and 3rd year Gryffindors were bullying students from all houses, even their own. Harry and the others all found it disgusting. And to make matters worse, Dumbledore turned a blind eye to the bullying. Because Liam was a part of it. Even McGonagall was upset by it, punishing the ones who she caught. Lockhart was actually rewarding Liam as was his parents. People were getting sick of the bullies, mainly Liam, Ron, and Ginny who were all the worst of the bullies. And Harry was their main target.  
The Slytherin quidditch team was actually just entering the entrance hall after a late practice one night when Liam, Ron, Ginny, and a couple other Gryffindors were apparently waiting for them. Or for Harry.  
"Look at these snakes. They must be pretty desperate to let that worthless girly freak on their team. Guess they're just going to roll over like dogs." Liam said, causing the Slytherins to tense when they realized they were referring to Harry at first. "Just where they belong."  
"It's okay to be afraid Potter. We're better than you with talent and we didn't have to buy our way onto the team with fame and money." Harry said in a calm voice, keeping his team from attacking. "It's not okay that you seem to think it's okay to stalk me in school and follow me around with the sole intent to mock and beat me, though. You're obsession is disturbing and I wish for you to stop doing so. With that being said, take your disgusting fan boys and girls and leave us alone. Our problems will be settled on the quidditch pitch." He told the kid, pushing past him. None of them were prepared for the punches that were aimed at him by Liam and Ginny. Except Harry that was. He ducked and the two that were aiming at him hit two others who were standing to the side. With venomous hisses and hearty laughter at the lions, the Slytherins disappeared down into the dungeons, congratulating Harry on disturbing the lions like that. "It wasn't hard, they're all too prideful for their own good." Harry shrugged.  
They rest of the month was going on better since then and soon it was Halloween and everyone was excited. Many of the second years and above remembered that Harry was cross-dressing last year and many whispers were going around about whether or not he would cross-dress again and if so what he would go as. Harry was walking on his own to the great hall that morning when he was grabbed and dragged into a nearby alcove. It was the twins and Lee.  
"Hey you guys." Harry told them with a soft smile at the boys who were like brothers to him. It was the same way with them.  
"Hiya Harry. We're in charge of the pool that's going around about you." George told him with a grin. Harry smiled back.  
"I don't know what I'm doing yet." he told them jokingly. He knew he was going to cross-dress, he just didn't know what as.  
"What are you doing?" they demanded, holding back their laughter.  
"How about you three decide?" Harry told them with a grin. The trio of lions started to cry at the honor he bestowed on them.  
"Of course!" they told the boy.  
"You have until an hour before dinner tonight." he told them firmly.  
"We'll have it ready, and you shall be apart of our group tonight." they told him with a wink, making Harry blush.  
"Alright then. See you guys at 6pm tonight." he said with a grin. They agreed and the group separated, Harry going to breakfast as the lion trio went to brainstorm on an idea to show off Harry and get Draco and Blaise jealous as that was one of their favorite pass-times. "Morning." Harry told Draco and Blaise as he sat down next to his two friends. They grinned back.  
"Happy Halloween." they told the boy. They were all excited because all they had was a herbology class with the other 3 houses after breakfast and it would be a free day the rest of the day. The Halloween feast would take place at 7pm that night, plenty of time to do homework and get ready for the party and feast. The entire school was excited about it. After they all ate breakfast, the group headed down towards the green houses. They were surprised when they got down there and found Mrs. Sprout wasn't there. It was after a few minutes that they sotted the usually happy woman heading towards them, it was Lockhart accompanying her that put some of them on edge. The students that weren't in Gryffindor scowled at the pompous man as they finally heard what he was saying.  
"I'm telling you Pomona, If you'd just listen to me, I can tell you how to properly bandage an injured tentacula or mandrake." he said.  
"Greenhouse 3 second years!" she told them, leading the way. "Good-bye Mr. Lockhart." she growled closing the door in the startled man's face. She smiled when the Ravenclaws, Hufflepuffs, and Slytherins cheered at her for doing so. "Alright class, today we're going to be taking care of Mandrakes. Who can tell me about mandrakes?" she asked. She smiled and nodded to Neville to answer her questions.  
"Mandrakes are root plants that go through 3 stages of life from baby, to adolescent, to adult. Their cries as a baby can knock you out, but when they are adults, their cries can kill you. They're used in complex potions, one of which heals petrification." Neville answered her question.  
"Good job, Mr. Longbottom. 20 points to Hufflepuff." she smiled. "As Mr. Longbottom explained, these mandrakes cries aren't fatal. Either way, everyone needs to come up front here to get a pair of earmuffs." she told them, showing off a pair of pink, fluffy earmuffs. Everyone scrambled up and got theirs, though Ronald and Liam both got a pair of pink fluffy earmuffs.  
"So when I tell you too, I want you to put them on. Don't take them off until I take mine off. So keep a close eye on me." With that, she put her earmuffs on, waiting until everyone else had them on. "YOU'LL GRAB THEM BY THEIR STOCK!" she yelled out to them, "AND PULL!" she yanked out the stock and what looked like a fat, ugly baby came out. Even with the earmuffs on, you could still make out the shrill scream. Ron suddenly fell backwards, unconscious. "DID HE FAINT?" she hollered. Daphne who was nearest from the group shook her head.  
"HE TOOK OFF HIS EARMUFFS!" she returned, making everyone snicker.  
"JUST LEAVE HIM THEN. NOW, YOU'LL TAKE THE MANDRAKE BABY AND PUT IT INTO A NEW POT, AND RECOVER IT WITH DIRT!" she told them, putting it in the pot and repacking the dirt. They all watched as she took off her earmuffs and they followed suit. "Now, like Mr. Weasley over there has shown us, leave the earmuffs on. You'll need to replace your mandrake root into a new pot, replace and pack the dirt, and then sprinkle it with a little water. Well, get on to it." with that, they all put their earmuffs back on and then started to work on their assignments.  
The class was difficult, as the mandrakes hated being removed from their pots, but hated going into a new one even more. Harry got a couple bites, but that was all. Neville, Daphne, and Hermione all got mandrakes that were pretty docile, and didn't put up quite a fight. Draco's and Blaise's left them with some shallow scratches, and Theo's was like Harry's, just some little bites. Once they were done, they just looked around as the other students worked. Some got biters, others got scratchers, a couple got kickers, and some got dociles. They looked over to see which one Liam got and they had to snort. Liam was covered in mud and dirt. His mandrake had bitten, scratched, and kicked all the way. Liam had quite a few bites and it was hilarious to see him struggling with it. In the end, Sprout had to go over and do it for him. After she finished in only a couple minutes, she removed her earmuffs and the rest followed.  
"Mr. Potter, I want you and Mr. Weasley to write out a two foot essay on mandrake roots and how they're supposed to be handled, and what they can be used for. Do you understand?" she asked with a scowl down at him.  
"Yes ma'am." he said with a whining voice. Sprout's eyebrow twitched at that before she nodded and moved to the front of the greenhouse.  
"Well done to the rest of you. Have a Happy Halloween and see you at the feast and party later on tonight. I suggest you head on up to clean and get ready for the night. Remember, nothing vulgar as you costume, should you choose to dress up." she smiled as they returned her sentiment and started leaving, going up and putting their earmuffs back into the boxes they got them from. She narrowed her eyes as Liam and Ron, who had re-awoken after everyone had taken off their muffs left theirs where they had been sitting. Safe to say, she was annoyed with those two completely.  
The students all went to eat lunch before going off to prepare for the night. as Harry and his group was heading upstairs, they ran into Cedric who Harry was ecstatic to see. They ran into each other in the hallways and libraries, but not all that often. "Happy Halloween Harry, it feels like its been forever since I've actually talked with you." the fifth year told the boy. Harry nodded.  
"Happy Halloween. I know. I've missed talking with you too." Harry admitted. Cedric told Harry lots of different stories from his younger years at Hogwarts, and Harry enjoyed their talks. "Any ideas what you're coming to the party tonight as?" Harry asked.  
"I think I'll be coming down as a healer." Cedric told him. Harry nodded, he could see Cedric in a white lab coat and scrub robes. "What about you guys?" he asked everyone.  
"I'm coming as a scientist." Daphne said.  
"Herbologists." Neville answered.  
"I'm going down as Rowena Ravenclaw." Hermione said.  
"I'm coming down as a clown." Theo told them.  
"I think I'll come down as a quidditch player." Blaise answered.  
"I'm going to try pulling off a veela." Draco answered.  
"Those are some great ideas you guys." Cedric said with a smile. "What about you Harry?"  
"Lee and the twins are picking out my costume, so I don't really know." Harry said with a smile as Neville and the girls laughed at Blaise and Draco's shocked and pale faces. Theo just hummed in agreement with Cedrics words.  
"That's got to be a crazy thing to do, but since you guys are friends, I know it'll be awesome." Cedric told him. Harry nodded.  
"I agree." after a few more words, Cedric headed off as the friends all headed to the Room of Requirement where they were going to spend the rest of the day until Harry was retrieved by Lee and the twins and the others would head down with the rest of the school. Soon, Lee came to retrieve him and Draco was glaring at him when the boy picked Harry up and took him out of the room.  
"So what did you guys decide?" Harry asked Lee, who just shook his head as they headed towards the Gryffindor Tower. Normally students from other houses weren't allowed in another houses common room, but everyone was in their rooms or already heading towards the great hall. Harry was also on good terms with the portraits, which had its perks. The Fat Lady's portrait welcomed them in with out a need for a password. Harry still thought that the glaring red and gold was blinding.  
In their year, it was only the twins and Lee, so the three had their dorm to themselves with Harry now being in the room with them. "Harry, our little snake!" the twins shouted happily, closing and locking the dorm room door. "Are you ready for your costume revelation?" they asked. Harry nodded enthusiastically. "Close your eyes." they ordered. Harry did as told. He could hear them shuffling around before things were quiet.  
"Open your eyes." the trio said. Harry did and blushed a bright red and gave a disbelieving squeak.  
"Are you serious!?" he asked. The boys nodded.  
"Yup, now let's get ready. We have to make a good impression." Lee said.  
"By that, he means a grand entrance." George said with a wicked smirk. Harry blushed and nodded with a smile. He was willing to do this again.  
"Let's do this." Harry agreed as they got ready. In the great hall, the teachers were all standing together, and they were worried. The party had been going for a few minutes and there were four students who weren't accounted for.  
"The twins, Lee, and Harry aren't here." Minerva said, her voice tight with worry.  
"I know. It's... foreboding. To say the least." Filius said. Pomona, Severus, and Pomfrey all nodded. They looked over as Harry's group of friends approached.  
"Uncle Sev, do you know where Harry is?" he asked.  
"Nope. Do you know if he's alone?" Severus asked, last Halloween playing in his head.  
"He's with the twins and Lee. They chose his costume tonight." Hermione said. They all watched as Severus paled in alarm. The twins choosing for his son?! What perverted thing would they think up? They all got their answer a few minutes later.  
Everyone in the Great Hall looked over as the doors flew open and brightly colored fairies darted in in a flurry. Once the fairies disappeared, everyone was shocked at what was revealed. The twins were in wizarding marital robes. Lee was in a dark tux, and Harry. Harry was blushing and in a beautiful white bridal gown. They all gasped as the Gryffindor trio put one of their hands on or around Harry. Severus and the teachers all heard Draco's possessive growl. "Draco, calm down. It's just a costume set. They're not really putting a claim on him. I'd be using them in potions if they did." Severus told his godson who relaxed after a minute, seeing how serious his god father was.  
"Okay. Keep an eye on them just in case guys." Draco told them with a glare at the trio. The night was going on peacefully. Harry was spending time with all of his friends, it was close to the end of the night when it happened. Harry felt an intense evil course through the castle, due to his connection with the castle, and a sharp, but brief pain went through his scar. At the same time, Filch who was nearby felt a pain that wasn't his own, but his familiar's, Mrs. Norris. Both knew something was wrong. Filch left in a hurry, Harry right behind him. His friends and the teachers right behind him.  
The group ran up to the second floor, water flooding the halls. What they came across sent Filch and Harry to their knees in disbelieving shock and denial. Mrs. Norris was hanging stiffly from one of the torch brackets. On the wall in what looked suspiciously like blood were words. 'The Chamber has been opened. Enemies of the heir beware.'  
"Mrs. Norris!?" Filch couldn't get his mind around seeing his familiar like this. Harry couldn't get his mind around the sweet feline being in a painful position. Ignoring everything else, he ran up to the wall, very gently unhooking her from the bracket. After placing his hand on the cat's chest, he felt relief flood him.  
"She's alive Mr. Filch." Harry told him. "She's just- petrified." Harry swallowed the lump in his throat as he looked at the wall. That's when Severus, Albus, and the others arrived.  
"Albus?" Minerva gasped in shock at seeing the message and the cat she was fond of.  
"Harry?" Severus asked gently. Harry looked up ad gave a small frown.  
"Mrs. Norris is petrified dad. But she's alive. And Prof. Sprout has us working on mandrake roots." Harry's eyes shone with unshed tears, his eyes imploring as he pleaded. "She'll be fine, right?" Severus nodded.  
"Yes son. Mrs. Norris is going to be just fine. We'll get her right as rain as soon as the roots are finished maturing, okay?" Severus told the boy, though he also looked at Filch.  
"Severus is right, Argus. Once the roots are ready, we'll get Mrs. Norris unpetrified." Pomfrey told the man as she checked the cat just in case. She was relieved as the care taker's familiar was just petrified.  
"I know. It's just hard when your companion since you were child is left still as death, even if she is alive." he admitted. Harry nodded his agreement. He couldn't imagine how he'd feel if anything were to happen to Hedgewig, for they had a bond even if she wasn't his familiar. He didn't want to think of anything happening to Nagi, his actual familiar either. The group was interrupted by the students heading up stairs. They stopped and everyone of the students started whispering about the scene. Severus felt like growling at Dumbledore. The fool should've told the students to remain in the Great Hall or something with a few teachers.  
"Students must return to their common rooms! Prefects and Head girl and boy must take their houses back. Now." Dumbledore told the hall. The groups left until it was just Harry, the twins, Lee, their friends, and the teachers. "Now, what are you kids doing up here?" he asked Harry. "And how did you know she was petrified?"  
"I saw Mr. Filch become very alarmed by something. I figured for him to be that alarmed, that it must be his familiar Mrs. Norris. I like them both, so I got worried and left with him when he ran out." Harry answered with a half truth. He knew that wizards and their familiars had a bond so he was sure that something had happened to Mrs. Norris by the man's behavior. "Also, her heart is still beating and her aura strong. It would have disappeared if she really were dead." Dumbledore nodded, accepting the boy's words as the truth that they were.  
"And the rest of you?" he asked.  
"We were worried about Harry running out like that, I mean he was attacked by a troll last year when he left. We didn't want something to happen like that again." Draco answered for the group. Dumbledore once more nodded before he dismissed the group. With relief and worry in their hearts, the kids separated to go to their common rooms, saying good night to each other. Tiredly, the children all fell into their beds and drifted off to sleep. None of them sure what was going to await them this year. And Severus was in his quarters later that night, downing a glass of fire whiskey at another Halloween that ended on a bad note, leaving him to wonder just what his son would get into this year.

A/N: Sorry for the late post, but review and let me know what you thought.


	5. Chapter 5

A/N: Well I'm back with Chapter 5, November. I want to thank S for beta-ing. Couldn't do this with out her. Also, I'd like to thank all of you for the reviews I've gotten. They help me to keep going. A while back I got a review asking why they needed to keep Harry's Parselmouth a secret when in book one, he used it in the annex before sorting. I'd like to thank that reviewer for bringing it up, because I hadn't realized it. It was only that one student who heard him speak it. Then he got sorted and had more to focus on. We'll say that student is a muggle-born and thus didn't realize the importance of parsel tounge. Then he forgot about it due to being introduced to this new world.

Any ways, that's enough from me for the moment. I hope you all enjoy this chapter and remember to review. Thanks!

 **Chapter 5: November**  
November arrived at the castle and all the students could talk about was the upcoming quidditch match between Gryffindor and Slytherin and the Chamber re-opening. It was the first time in many years that the Slytherin house was being rooted for. No one except the Gryffindors were rooting for the Gryffindors. They all heard about Liam being made the Gryffindor seeker through fame and money, and with him being a bully, no one except his house, parents, and Dumbledore rooted for the idiot. It was going to be at the end of the week.  
The twins were going around collecting two different polls- who would win the quidditch match and how. And who the heir was. So far, the bet was on Slytherin would win with Harry catching the snitch and Liam cheating or fouling at some point. The heir poll though, some thought it was Draco, others thought Gemma, there were those who thought maybe the heir could be in another house, someone thought it could be Liam.  
"He defeated the dark lord! How do we know that you-know-who didn't target him for fear of being challenged by another dark lord?" when Harry and his friends heard this they couldn't help but laugh when they got alone so no one would be suspicious. None of them thought Liam could be the heir. But what no one knew, was that Harry knew he was. That's why Harry found that particular story so funny.  
It was half-way through the week, when they were at lunch that any one brought themselves to talk about the chamber. The group was eating when Hermione and Theo both threw themselves in their seats next to Harry in annoyed and angry huffs. "What's wrong you guys?" Daphne asked the two Ravenclaws.  
"All the copies of Hogwarts a History are taken out of the library!" Hermione growled.  
"Why are you looking for that book, I thought you already had it?" Neville asked the girl.  
"I had to leave it at home so I could fit all of my stupid Lockhart books in my trunk." she growled. Theo nodded his agreement.  
"We're looking for it because we want to check out the lore on the Chamber of Secrets. There's an entire chapter on it and we can't remember all of it." Theo told them.  
"You only had to ask, I have my copy." Harry told them with a small smile.  
"You do?!" they asked happily. Harry nodded.  
"Yah, but we don't have time to get it now." Harry said with a sigh.  
"I know. We have History of Magic next. Let's just ask Professor Binn's when we get into class." Blaise said with a shrug.  
"You're a genius Blaise!" Hermione and Theo said.  
"Let's get going then!" Draco said. With that the group headed towards their next class. It was a class with all of the houses. That and Herbology. Once there, they took their seats in the center of the room. Before long the rest of the class arrived and soon Binns entered and class began as he started droning on about goblin rebellions.  
It was about a half hour before Theo and Hermione couldn't take it anymore and they raised their hands, effectively cutting off Binns and surprising him. No one had ever interrupted him during class, not even when he was alive. "Yes, Ms. Ganger?" he asked.  
"Sir, could you tell us about the Chamber of Secrets?" she asked, causing the mostly dozing class to jerk up in surprise and intrigue.  
"This is a history class, not a class on folk tales and fairy stories. This is a class that deals with facts and truth." Binns said firmly.  
"But sir, isn't all folk and fairy tales based on some grain of fact and truth?" Theo asked. Binns gave a small growl, before rubbing a translucent hand down an equally translucent face.  
"400 years ago, the four founders of this beautiful and historical school had a large fight. Salazar wanted to be more selective of the students allowed in the school. Godric, on the other hand felt they should allow anyone who was magical into the school. They fought, and Salazar left the school, or so the other founders had believed. In actuality, he had created a chamber that he hid in the depths of the school somewhere. It was said that in this chamber he raised a great beast that would, when his heir came along, purge the school of what he considered unclean blood. The chamber was never found, and it was and is a myth. That is the end of this conversation." he added firmly, "We will continue discussing the goblin rebellions, which are pure, hard, fact." Binns glared at the class before going back to his original topic.  
The class went back to their sleepy, dazed ways. Once classes were over, they went to the room of requirement after Harry retrieved his copy of Hogwarts a History. They looked up the chapter and found it said the same thing that Binns had told them. With slight despondency, the group went off to dinner before going to the library to do homework and then the group went to bed.  
Finally, the day of the quidditch game arrived and the entire school was in an uproar. This was going to be promising they were sure. The boy-who-lived vs. the dungeon bats son! The entire school was excited about this. It was breakfast time and Harry's friends were telling him to eat something. It took a few more minutes than anyone would like, but he was able to get down some porridge and toast. Then the team headed down to the pitch. Their friends told Harry and Draco good luck before going into the stands. In their teams changing rooms, they changed into their robes and Flint gave his speech.  
"Alright team, we have the best team in the school. The best keeper, best chasers, and beaters, and the best seeker we've had in this school since, I can't believe I'm saying this, Charlie Weasley. The Gryffindor seeker was a worthy advisory, according to my older brother. Now, let's go and win. I want a clean game, but keep each other safe. Save the beaters and a couple of the chasers, the Gryffs play dirty, but Dumbles lets them get away with it. You ready?" he asked their team.  
"Slytherin!" the team cried before nodding and the team headed outside towards the pitch. As they headed down they heard Lee Jordan, the twin's friend call off their names. Then he called off the Gryffindor teams names, sounding disgusted save for when he called out the beaters and chasers.  
"Now I want a clean game!" Madam Hooch told them, looking at the Gryffindors, making the keeper and seeker scoff, but the beaters and chasers nodded. Madam Hooch nodded before releasing the snitch, which disappeared, then she blew her whistle, and throwing the quaffle into the air, the game began. 15 brooms flew into the air and the game began.  
Harry flew far above the rest of the players and circled the pitch, keeping an eye out for the snitch and an eye on the other players. Liam was pretty pathetic. He was just staying in one place, taking everything he had to dodge a bludger sent his way. He finally grew a brain a few minutes into the game and stayed up high. It was barely 10 minutes in when Harry spotted the flash of gold. He sped towards it, Liam on his tail. 'So he was watching me.' Harry realized, trying to get faster. Liam suddenly cut him off, forcing Harry to swerve his broom away from the flying elephant. He spun slightly, but lost sight of the snitch. Do to the foul though, Slytherin got a free shot in and Draco landed the score perfectly, making his team cheer. 12 minutes into the game and Slytherin was winning 80 - 40. Thanks to their training, the chasers and beaters were doing well. 20 minutes into the game and Harry noticed Liam still trailing him. An idea came to him when he spotted the snitch and he flew into the opposite direction before he made an abrupt turn and sped in the real direction of the snitch. Liam was too surprised to turn in time and hit the wall. Next he followed the snitch when it suddenly dived down to the ground, Harry following in the straight dive. As he got closer he stretched out his hand and closed his fingers around the golden orb. With a start he realized he was only a few feet from the ground and with a grunt, he straightened out his broom, his toes brushing grass as he leveled out before slowing down enough to softly tumble to the ground. "I CAUGHT THE SNITCH!" he shouted proudly, making the crowd that wasn't a Gryffindor cheer.  
His team surrounded him in cheers when a bellow made everyone step away from the small boy. "HARRY HADRIAN SNAPE! Of all the things I've seen in my life, foolishly playing chicken with solid ground to catch a SNITCH of all things has topped it. You took at least 10 years off my life with your stunt. You're a Slytherin, not a foolish Gryffindor." Severus Snape showed up to the team, Harry and Draco's friends right behind him.  
"I tricked Liam and he slammed into a wall." Harry said, looking up at his dad innocently. "That was pretty Slytherin of me. Although, he was pretty stupid, he'd fall for anything." Harry admitted. Severus rubbed his eyes.  
"Yes, it was." Severus admitted. "And I am proud of you winning. Congratulations on that by the way." Severus told his son who beamed at him.  
"Thanks dad." Harry said with a huge smile. Severus hugged his son.  
"But I don't want you to pull stunts like that again. I was scared Harry. You got closer and closer to the ground and didn't pull up until the last minute. I was worried." Severus whispered to his son.  
"Sorry dad." Harry told him. "I'll do my best to not worry you like that again." Harry promised.  
"That's all I ask. Now, I believe there's a group of people who are wanting to congratulate you as well." with that Severus walked off and Harry's team and friends went on congratulating him. It was late before anyone went to bed that night giddy with sugar and excitement. It had been a school-wide victory, even if the gryffs didn't think so.  
The month continued on and Liam and his squad couldn't let their house's loss go. They were in front of History of Magic. "Harry, when was the last time you got any sleep?" Neville asked Harry who was leaning on Draco do to exhaustion.  
"Umm..a few days ago." Harry answered, ending it with a yawn. He had actually been up the past few days trying to work out the diary and it was making him frustrated at not figuring it out. 'Must be the Ravenclaw in me.' he mused, remembering how the hat said he could fit into any house. That was when Liam, Ron, and Ginny came along with a large fan base behind them.  
"Listen here you girly freak," Liam growled at Harry, who stood up straighter and stopped leaning on Draco. "I know you cheated during that match. There was no way you could beat me at quidditch. So therefore you had to cheat."  
"I didn't cheat Potter," Harry muttered, "I'm just better than you." Liam Ron and Ginny all attacked Harry at the same time, surprising everyone. Harry went crashing backwards while every Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, and Slytherin shot off curses at the bullies and the trio and their Gryffindor group were thrown backwards. Harry sighed as he looked around. His ink pots were broken and ink was all over his books and bags. Grumbling slightly, he shoved everything into his bag as Filch came along.  
"What is going on!" he shouted.  
"They attacked Harry." the three houses answered, pointing at the three groaning students with a variety of charm effects on them. Filch nodded and leered at the three gryffs.  
"My, my. Let's take you to Prof. Snape shall we. He's just as good at removing charm effects as Pomfrey, and she's busy." he took the trio and dragged them off, the huffs, raves, and slyths cheering Mr. Filch as he went.  
"You okay Hade?" Draco asked his little friend, helping him stand.  
"Yah, just upset at the mess made." Harry grumbled, showing the dripping mess that was his bag. Harry sighed.  
"Maybe you should just go ahead and go back to the dorm. Binns doesn't take roll call so he won't notice you missing." Blaise told Harry.  
When Harry went to protest, Hermione surprised everyone. "Harry, go. Me, Theo and the others will take notes so you don't miss anything." the girl told him. Harry looked unsure before nodding reluctantly.  
"Okay. I'll see you in defense next." Harry told the group. With that, Harry headed down to the dungeons. Entering the Slytherin Common room, it was mostly empty save a couple seventh years. In his dorm room, he put his bag on the ground and emptied everything from it. Seeing as he had most of his stuff in the bag, it was going to take a lot of cleaning spells. As he was going through the items, he noticed something strange.  
Riddle's Diary wasn't soaked in the ink, but everything else was. Harry remembered seeing the book covered in ink. 'What in the name of magic?' he wondered to himself. Putting the clean diary aside, he continued cleaning the rest of the items as he thought on this new information. He finished repairing the ink pots before grabbing the diary, a quill, and ink. Getting on his bed, he opened the diary and inked his quill. "Here goes nothing." Harry muttered, writing his name on the page he opened to. _**(/Harry/ \Tom Riddle Diary\\)**_  
/Hello, my name is Harry Snape./ he wrote, watching in awe as the ink faded into the paper.  
\Hello Harry, my name is Tom Riddle.\ the words appeared on the page. Before Harry could reply, more words appeared. \But you already knew that, didn't you?\ Harry swallowed.  
/Yah. How'd you know?/  
\Me and the other horcrux are connected to our maker. We know everything that has happened before and after we were created.\ Harry couldn't help but laugh.  
/That saves us a lot of time and explanation./ he wrote back.  
\I guess it does. Unfortunately, I can't tell you where Bast and the chamber are.\ the book wrote.  
/Well, that sucks. What can you tell me though?/  
\There was a Hufflepuff giant in his third year. I was in my 6th. I had them convinced that the half-giant was the heir. I do regret that, but I wasn't going to put Bast in harms way.\ the diary replied. \I can show you the night I'm talking about if you wish.\ Harry thought about that before sighing.  
/Yes please./ Harry replied. The pages turned themselves to June 19th (not sure if that was the right date.) and Harry felt himself get drawn into the book(Scene's exactly like from the book, not replaying it). Harry tried to catch his breath after finding himself on his bed once more. /You mean Hagrid? You blamed him?/ Harry asked the diary.  
\Yes. Is he a friend of yours?\ the diary asked.  
/Yes, he is. He told me about being expelled. So a girl died?/  
/Yes. Bast was devastated. He cares about the students, and being the cause of death for one, no matter how accidental, really tore him up.\  
/I can understand that. He really does care about the students. Is there anything else you can tell me?/ Harry asked, yawning.  
\I'm afraid not. Sorry. You'll need to figure out the rest for yourself.\ the diary replied.  
/Okay. Thank you. I have to go. But we will talk later Tom./ Harry replied.  
\I look forward to it.\ the diary answered. Harry closed the book and grinned widely.  
He did it! He finally figured out the diary! 'I have to tell Uncle Luci!' Harry thought to himself, running around the room getting a piece of parchment.  
 _'What has you so excited, Snakeling?'_ a voice hissed.  
 _'Nagi!?'_ Harry cried in surprise. _'Where have you been, I haven't seen you around for weeks.'_ Harry asked. The only reason he hadn't been worried was because his bond with the great snake assured him he was fine.  
 _'I was visiting a snake nest in the Forbidden Forest, and hunting. There's more variety here than at Severus's or the Malfoys.'_ Nagi replied. _'I was staying out of the way. People are especially uneasy now due to the chamber. I didn't want to be spotted.'_ Nagi explained. Harry nodded. _'So why are you so excited?'_ Nagi asked the boy once more.  
 _'I figured out the Diary! I have to visit Hagrid and I have to send a letter to Uncle Luci!'_ Harry told the large reptile excitedly, making Nagi smile.  
 _'Then get to it Snakeling. But I will be with you now. I am happily sated.'_ Nagi told his friend, shrinking to the size of a bracelet, and attaching himself to Harry's wrist. Harry smiled fondly at the velso. _'What is it Snakeling?'_ Nagi asked.  
 _'I've missed you Nagi.'_ Harry answered, sitting down at the desk to write his letter to Lucius.  
 _'And I you.'_ Nagi answered with an amused tone in his voice. It was in a comfortable silence that Harry and Nagi sat while Harry wrote his letter.  
 **'** Dear Uncle Luci,  
I've figured out how to work the diary! It's fascinating. You just write in it and it'll write back. It couldn't tell me much about the Chamber, but it gave me some leads to follow. I'm okay, and nothing extreme (Except for Mrs. Norris) has happened. Dray is doing good, so are the others. Any ways, I have a class in a few minutes and need to go. I hope you and Aunt Cissy are doing okay.  
Sending you my love and Drays,  
Harry Hadrian **'**  
After assuring that the letter was okay, Harry put a little sand on it to dry the ink, then grabbed the letter, an envelope, and his book bags and headed up to the owlery. He spotted Hedwig right away. "Hey girl, it's been awhile. Sorry about ignoring you like that. It wasn't my intention." he apologized to the beautiful snow owl who, after nipping his ear as a reprimand, hooted her forgiveness. "How would you like to go visit Uncle Luci and Aunt Cissy for a little bit?" he asked the owl. She hooted her approval, making Harry laugh. "Alright. Here you go." he tied the letter to her foot and she flew off. He watched her go until she was just a dot in the gray sky. With a sigh, he realized that it was time for Defense and grumbled as he headed down to his next class, Nagi giving a soft hiss of sympathy, knowing that Harry hated that class and how the teacher always gave him a hard time.  
Harry joined Draco and Blaise outside the Defense classroom with the other Slytherins and Gryffindors. "Hey Harry, you get your bag cleaned?" Blaise asked him. Harry nodded.  
"Yah. What happened in History?" he asked them.  
"Oh yah. Theo wanted me to give this to you." Draco said, handing Harry a few sheets of parchment. Harry recognized the rave boys handwriting. It was History notes  
"Awesome. I'll have to thank him for this." Harry smiled, neatly placing the parchment into a small folder for History. "Now to suffer this." Harry muttered. The other nodded. That was when Lockhart arrived and they all sat down in the Defense classroom, Harry, Draco, and Blaise in the back row. Class wasn't too bad that day. Lockhart had brought in pixies as a change of pace that day.  
"Now, let's see what you guys make of these." Lockhart told the class, releasing the blue creatures without giving the students any ideas on what to do. It was complete and total chaos. Harry was giving the twins and Lee a copy of his memories of this moment. The pixies grabbed Liam and attached him to the chandelier by his cloak. Ronald was hit in the head multiple times with different objects. It got better when Lockhart waved his wand. "Pipski peskipsi" he said, only for a pixie to appear and take the wand, and throw it out a window. Knowing what would happen if they stayed behind, Harry and the other Slytherins raced out of the classroom. Barely hearing Lockhart tell some unfortunate Gryffindor to stay in and clear away the pixies, the Slytherins burst out laughing and kept up their race until they were at the stairways.  
It was with grace that the second year Slytherins let out a single breath and transitioned from out of breath pre-teens to dignified, aristocratic Slytherins. Since Defense was their last class of the day and they got out early, the Slytherins decided that they'd all just go down to the common room and work on homework until dinner, due to dinner not being until 6pm and it was only 4:30pm. They were in the common room doing homework for 15 minutes before Severus came in. "What are you all doing in here, isn't it Defense right now?" he asked the second years.  
"Prof. Lockhart let us out since the classroom was over run with the pixies he brought into class today." Pansy answered for the group.  
"Please tell me what happened," Severus said intrigued. It was with great detail that the second years explained everything that happened in the defense room. Some of the 6th and 7th years were sniggering and Severus had a small smirk on his face at the end of the tale. "That is amusing. You may return to your work. See you all at dinner." he told the group of Slytherins, leaving the common room. November was ending on a chilly note when Harry was finally able to make time to visit Hagrid on his own, save Nagi who was wrapped around his wrist in a kind of circlet, a couple hours before dinner.  
Harry knocked and smiled when he heard Fang start barking and Hagrid's "Back Fang, Back!" Harry smiled when Hagrid's face appeared in the doorway. "Hello Harry. Long time no see." Hagrid told the boy, picking him up and hugging him as he brought him into the hut.  
"I know. Sorry for not visiting sooner Hagrid." Harry told the half-giant, once he was let go.  
"It's alright Harry. I know you've been busy lately." Hagrid told him. "Tea?" Harry nodded enthusiastically. He loved Hagrid's tea. It was pretty good. He petted Fang as the two talked, Nagi laying down in front of the fire to keep warm. Eventually, after about an hour, the discussion ended up on the chamber and the possibility of it being opened again.  
"What can you tell me about all of it Hagrid?" Harry asked, sadness in his voice as he remembered Mrs. Norris hanging on the bracket.  
"I guess now is as good as any. But I don't want you to tell anyone, not even your friends Harry." Hagrid told him firmly. Harry nodded.  
"Of course Hagrid. I promise." Harry told the giant. Hagrid nodded, knowing Harry would always keep a promise, unless he was unable to.  
"In my third year, I took care of magical creatures. Well, I found an egg. I hatched it and it was an achromantula. But I wasn't going to be allowed to keep him, so I raised him in secret, in a cupboard. Well, the night before I was expelled, a girl died. The prefect, Tom Riddle, he caught me trying to put Aarog away. Aragog ran off and I was expelled. I don't put it against him. Tom was from an orphanage, a horrible one. Dippet, the headmaster at the time, wouldn't let anyone stay during the summer, because of the attacks. Kid was desperate and just tried what he could to stay. It worked. And Prof. Dumbledore convinced Dippet to let me stay on as Games Keeper."  
"I'm sorry about all of that happening Hagrid." Harry told him.  
"It's okay Harry." Hagrid assured the boy.  
"So were did Aragog go?" Harry asked intrigued. Hagrid, seeing Harry's interest in the achromantula, gladly told the boy.  
"He disappeared into the forest, where he has a large nest." Hagrid answered. "If you want to find out more about Achromantulas, there's a specific book in the library. Achromantulas and Other Magical Creatures. You might find it a good read." Hagrid told the boy. Harry nodded with a smile.  
"Thanks for telling me all of this Hagrid. I know it was hard for you." Harry told the half-giant as Nagi repositioned himself on Harry's wrist.  
"It felt good to get it off my chest Harry. So thank you. Now it's almost dinner time, let's head up." Hagrid told the boy. Harry nodded and the duo headed up to the castle after feeding Fang. It was later that night, after dinner, that Harry headed into the library, quickly found the book, and headed to his room after checking out the book. Since Draco and Blaise were finishing homework in the library, he decided to go ahead and read what he could. It took awhile, but he finally found the section on achromantulas.  
'Achromantulas are the evolved species of spiders and have a connection with each other, as well as many similarities. Besides their shapes and bodies, the only difference in their structure is their sizes. Achromantulas, once full grown, can be almost two-stories large. As both are spiders, they flee from basilisks just as the achromantulas do. If a baskalisk is nearby, a spider will flee to the nearest nest of achromantulas for protection and sanctuary.' Harry finished reading the passage on the spiders.  
 _'Aarog might know something about the chamber.'_ Harry hissed to Nagi.  
 _'While that's true, Snakeling, I don't think it would be a good idea for you to go into the forbidden forest.'_ Nagi hissed back. _'Let's try to figure it out with out you going into the forest. It'll be only if we really need to.'_ Nagi's told Harry firmly. Harry sighed before nodding.  
 _'Fine Nagi. Well, it's late. Let's go to bed.'_ Harry told Nagi, tired after such an informative day. With a sigh, the duo got ready for bed before finally falling asleep.

A/N: Well there it is. Hope you liked it! Please review!


	6. Chapter 6

A/N: I'm back! Sorry for being so late. Computer broke and internet got lost. I got it back. Thanks to S for being Beta. Please review!

Chapter 6: December  
It was cold once December hit. There was already snow on the ground even if it was only an inch or so. The teachers were adding to the students work pile because apparently, if they didn't have homework over Christmas Break, they were bound to get into some form of trouble.  
The entire castle was cold, torches flickering due to the small cracks next to windows, allowing the cold air in. It was potions that was worse. The dungeons were already cold, and winter just made it colder. The truth was, it wasn't this cold last year, or at least it seemed that way to the many students as they huddled as close as possible to their cauldrons as they worked on their newest potion, a hair-raising potion. It was a simple potion and to be honest, Harry already had many ideas on how he could work this potion into some of his pranks with the twins. He could see Lockhart's and Lily Potters hair raised like flames. He was thankful that he didn't have any classes with the woman. He hadn't ran into the Potter parents for the majority of the year. They would glare at him from a far, but they were too scared of his dad and the many teachers who cared for the boy to try any thing. Something he was grateful for, because he wouldn't put it past them considering how much they seemed to dislike him.  
It would soon be the next quidditch game of the season. Slytherins vs. Hufflepuffs. Daphne was beater for her team and she was excited about going against Harry and Draco on the field, as they were about going against her. Since Hufflepuff was honestly a better team than Gryffindor's, the Slytherins were putting in as much practice as they could. In fact, Flint and the Hufflepuff captain, MacAnally, had come to an agreement on field terms that would allow a fair and equal amount of practice time. Cedric was also seeker for the Hufflepuff team and had told Harry he was looking forward to going against him. Harry had seen him playing last year, and was just as excited. The game would take place towards the beginning of the second week of December, which left plenty of practice time and time for doing the large amounts of homework they had.  
It was half-way through the first week though that it happened. Harry was once more on his own, as Draco and Blaise were once more in detention for getting into a fight in the charms class room with a couple Gryffindors. Hermione and Theo were also tutoring some of the younger first years who were having trouble either with classes or adjusting to the wizarding world. While Daphne and Neville were getting tutored by some older years. He was on his way up to the library since it was after dinner, when a brief but heavy wave of darkness washed over him, making him stumble and Nagi hiss dangerously. 'It's attacking! Hurry!' a voice Harry recognized as Bast's cried in his head as Hogwarts showed him an image of the infirmary. Without hesitating, Harry rushed as fast as he could to the infirmary, but on his way there, he was halted by a motionless figure that was collapsed on the stair way.  
'Oh no!' Harry rushed over to the fallen figure. It was a first year only a little bigger than Harry himself with brown hair. He spotted the Gryffindor symbol on his robes and it came back to him. Colin Creevy, he was usually going around with a camera, which wasn't on him, taking pictures to show his parents. He was a muggleborn if he remembered. Harry had the school alert Madam Pomfrey and sent Nagi to his dad, though he told him to be careful to stay hidden. Harry cast a diagnostic charm on the boy, while barely taking notice of the grapes all over the stairs. He was relieved to see that the boy was breathing. 'So he's petrified. Damn!' Harry thought, looking up when he heard the clacking of heels. It was madam Pomfrey.  
"What happened?!" Pomfrey asked. Harry shook his head.  
"I was coming to get a headache reliever when I found him like this. He's breathing and his auras still strong. But I think he was petrified." Harry told her and that was when Severus showed up.  
"What happened? Are you okay Harry?" Severus asked as Nagi slipped back to his son's wrist. Harry nodded.  
"He was coming to get a headache reliever when he came across Mr. Creevy." Pomfrey said, levitating the first year up to take to the hospital wing. "Mr. Creevy is petrified Sev." Pomfrey told him with a sigh, putting the boy on an empty cot.  
"What was he doing up here?" Severus indicated the petrified boy.  
"There were grapes on the stairs. Maybe he was coming to visit someone?" Harry suggested.  
"Oh yes. Mr. Potter is currently sleeping in another cot. It may be him he was coming to visit." Pomfrey said.  
"Why was the boy-who-lived in here?" Severus asked, Dumbledore hadn't told him about the boy being in the wing.  
"Mr. Potter thought he was better than the rules and went flying with some friends earlier today with out a teacher. He fell off the broom. He'll be fine, he's just resting and staying the night." Pomfrey said with a glower. She hadn't been happy about it. 'Stupid, egotistic boy.' she thought annoyed. She could admit, she disliked all three remaining Potters. She missed the little one with big, green, intelligent eyes and silky black locks. Little Harry had been her favorite of the twins.  
Severus sighed. "Maybe he's learned his lesson about rules." Severus said.  
Harry snorted. "Yah, and I'll stop attracting trouble." Harry muttered, making both adults glare reprimanding. "Heh. Sorry." he looked away. 'Huh, I thought of the head-ache reliever as a story to explain why I was there, but I actually have a really big one.' Harry realized, feeling the heavy throbbing that usually came when he was subjected to a certain dark and evil presence. Both adults seemed to realize he had a headache at the same time because Madam Pomfrey moved towards her medicine cabinet quickly while Severus put a hand on his forehead, just to make sure there wasn't a fever.  
"Here you go Harry." she told him with a smile, giving him the potion. Harry nodded relieved and drank it, ignoring the taste.  
"Thanks madam Pomfrey." Harry said, sighing in relief as the headache ebbed away.  
"Not a problem dear. Well, I can't do much for Mr. Creevy. We'll just have to wait for the mandrake roots to finish maturing so you can make the un-petrifying potion, Severus. Mean while, Harry you should get back to your dorm and head off to bed. I'm sure you're tired, I've seen how exhausting your practices have been. You have a match in 3 days, enjoy your down time." she told him. Harry nodded.  
"Night Madam Pomfrey, Dad." Harry said, leaving the infirmary and walking towards the dungeons. He felt bad, he hadn't been able to get there in time to stop it, and now some innocent little kid was in the infirmary. 'Sorry I didn't make it in time Bast.' he thought as he went into his dorm room and layed down. Nagi curled up beside his head and they both fell asleep.  
'It's not your fault Harry. Don't feel bad, okay.' Harry opened his eyes to find himself in the chamber once more. He could feel from the ambiance that it was a dream. He looked over to find Bast.  
'But I didn't make it. That kid's laying in the hospital wing!' Harry said, upset.  
'He's alive and breathing Harry. It seems his intent isn't to kill right now. We just have to be on guard and keep an eye out for anything unusual. Okay?' Bast told the boy gently. Harry took a deep breath before nodding.  
'Yah. We can do this. We'll just have to make sure to be extra careful.' Harry decided. Bast nodded.  
'On a good note, though. You're close to finding me. The passage you read on achromantulas and your talk with Hagrid gave you all you needed to find the next part of the puzzle.' Bast told him. Harry thought about it before nodding. He knew what he needed to do.  
'Okay, I know what I need to do next.' Harry assured the great snake. Bast nodded.  
'Just be careful as you go, under stood?' Bast said. Harry nodded.  
'Promise I'll be careful.' Harry told the snake who nodded. Harry woke up, finding it was time to get up and get ready for school. The news of there being another petrification spread. Apparently, Liam was awake enough to learn about the attack before going back to sleep. It was spread like wild fire through out the school and it was temporarily replacing the excitement about the match between Slytherin and Hufflepuff. Then, the morning of the game arrived cold and bright with no snow save the inch already on the ground. It was with slightly muted excitement that every one filed out to the pitch. As soon as both teams were standing in front of each other and shook hands, Madam Hooch blew the whistle and the 15 brooms soared up high into the sky. Harry could tell this was going to be an excellent match.  
First off, Cedric didn't watch Harry, he looked for the snitch on his own, much like Harry was. They were actually on opposite sides of the field. The Hufflepuffs keeper was amazing, keeping the Slytherin chasers from making a goal, much like the Slytherin keeper was keeping the Hufflepuff chasers from scoring. It showed how much better the Huffs were than the Gryffs, when, already 10 minutes into the game, both teams were tied 20-20. The game had been going on for close to 20 minutes now. Both teams were tied at 30-30 and Daphne already had one of their chasers out of the game, and one of Slytherins beaters had put one of Hufflepuffs chasers out of the game. It was definitely intense. Suddenly, both seekers dove towards the center of the field, causing everyone to scramble looking for the snitch the two boys had no doubt spotted. And sure enough, the snitch was in the center of the field, dodging players. Seeing what was happening, the players flew out of the way of the seekers who were both in their zones, not noticing each other until a moment before they would have collided. Everyone let out startled gasps as the two seekers barely missed each other, their shoulder pads brushing at how close they were to crashing painfully. The two seekers swerved and rounded, looking for the snitch that was flying towards a different part of the field, both seekers chasing after it in a race. The two seekers dodged a bludger from each team before being forced to dive after the snitch. Harry was watching the snitch, surprising everyone when he decided to fly out of the dive. They were all wondering until they saw why. The snitch suddenly veered upwards, causing Cedric to swerve so he wouldn't hit the bleachers, and strait into Harry's path, where said boy grabbed it gently but firmly into his hand. "And Slytherin wins 180-30 and what a match between seekers that was! Have you ever in your years seen such an intense play? Both teams did a great job in this match!" Lee's voice sounded over the cheers. "And can I point out how absolutely ravishing Harry looks with his cheeks flushed?" Lee added.  
"JORDAN! DO YOU WANT PORFESSOR SNAPE TO USE YOU AS INGREDIANTS IN HIS POTIONS?" McGonagall's voice sounded loudly making everyone pity the Gryffindor who couldn't keep his mouth shut.  
'He must have a death wish.' everyone decided, knowing how protective Severus was of his son.  
"Aw, he wouldn't do that to his future son-in-law." Jordan's voice sounded, everyone face palming at the seriousness in his voice..  
"I'd run Mr. Jordan, Prof. Snape's making his way over here." McGonagall's amused voice sounded.  
"AND EVERYONE ENJOY THE REST OF YOUR DAY!" Jordan's panicked voice sounded, making everyone laugh as the boy left the announcers table, running in the opposite direction of the fuming Professor in black headed his way.  
"That was a great match!" the team captains told each other, giving the other a firm hand shake. The rest of the team members did the same.  
"Great game Harry. It was amazing how you read the snitch's movements the way you did." Cedric told him with a grin.  
"Thanks. That was a lot of fun. Playing against you was a challenge, to say the least. I don't think I've been this exhausted before, not even after training. You sure know how to make someone work." Harry admitted to the boy. Cedric seemed pleased and blushed a bit at the praise.  
"You as well Harry." he said. With that the groups headed off to their dressing rooms to shower and head back up to the school where the two houses celebrated a game well played, not just winning. With that, the first half of the school year was drawing to a close. The list for who was remaining at Hogwarts went around. Severus couldn't leave due to all his work, but Harry was okay with that, staying at Hogwarts was a lot of fun. Unfortunately, all of his friends were leaving for home. Other than him, the only other Slytherins who were staying for break were two first year boys, Seth and Ichiro. Harry had gotten to know both boys a little bit over the school year. Seth was actually a half-blood. He was really good in charms and had an older brother who went to Drumstrang. His mother was head of the house, as his dad died a few years ago. Ichiro was actually from a pure blooded family, though a small, relatively unknown one. He had been adopted when he was three years old and was an only child. He didn't like Lockhart, but he liked the subject of Defense.  
It was with hugs and promises to be careful that the group separated, Harry back to the school with Filch and Hagrid, and the rest into the train that's heading back to Kings Cross. The trio decided to go to Hagrid to drink some tea, as Hagrid and Filch were actually friends and didn't mind each other. So the group was drinking tea and talking about different things while Fang, and Nagi sat in front of the fire, apparently having their own conversation. They talked of different magical creatures, they talked about the school and how it was holding up, and they even talked about quidditch. Both men impressed with Harry's flying abilities. Eventually it got to be lunch time, and they all headed up to the school to eat, saying good bye to Fang as the dog wanted to sleep in front of the fire. Nagi slid around Harry's wrist.  
After lunch Harry went to the common room, where he spent the rest of the day playing games of gob stones and wizards chess with the two first years, quickly discovering that Seth was super lucky at gob stones, and Ichiro had a hell of a mind in him, considering all of the strategies he pulled to maneuver against anything that was thrown at him in chess. Before they knew it, it was time for dinner and the trio headed up to the great hall. Because so many students were gone, it was only a large circular table for the students and teachers to sit at. There was only 2 other students staying at Hogwarts for break and they were a third year Hufflepuff, and a fifth year Ravenclaw. The group sat and chatted with each other over dinner, teachers asking student how they were doing in classes, teachers talking to other teachers about lesson plans, and the students trying to get info out of their teachers as to what to expect in classes once the school year started back up. To no avail, unfortunately.  
"So, Madam Pomfrey, I was wondering if you could tutor me in some more healing spells." Harry told the friendly woman, remembering his lessons with her the year before.  
"But of course. I'm mostly free during breaks like this." she told him with a smile, making Harry grin back.  
"Thanks Madam Pomfrey." Harry said.  
"No problem. So how about after lunch every day, save Wednesday and Sunday, as those are my stocking and supplying days." she asked. Harry nodded.  
"That'd be awesome!" Harry told her. Madam Pomfrey nodded.  
"Very well, I'll see you tomorrow after lunch then dear." Harry nodded and the two got into a talk on all the things he remembered from their last lesson of last year. Severus smiled at his son, glad he'd keep busy this break.  
'If I'm lucky, he won't get into any trouble during break with this extra studying.' Severus mused to himself. Harry was excited about the lessons as the only real time Madam Pomfrey had to tutor him was during Christmas break, due to that being the time with less students for her to worry about. After dinner, the students separated to do their own thing. Harry went towards the common room as the others went to the library. He looked for spiders along the way, but unfortunately, he found none. He was currently on the second floor, where the attack on Mrs. Norris happened, and he felt sad. It was strange not running into the feline every now and then so he could pet her, and he hadn't found the other cat again either. He was about to move on when he heard crying coming from the girls' restroom.  
'But, there aren't any girls staying, and all the female teachers are down in the great hall.' Harry thought confused. With out hesitating, he went inside. "Hello?" he called softly into the restroom.  
"W-who's there?" a soft voice asked. Harry looked around.  
"My name's Harry, what's yours?" he asked, still looking.  
"M-Myrtle." the voice replied, seemingly from nowhere.  
"Hi Myrtle. What's wrong, I heard you crying?" he told the voice.  
"It's just, I'm always lonely."  
"How come?" Harry asked, honestly surprised, the girl sounded nice.  
"I'm a ghost, and I always cry." the voice replied wetly and bitterly.  
"You're a ghost? Why do you always cry? Can I see you?" he asked.  
"I guess." the voice replied, and soon a ghost of a 14 year old girl with dark pig tails, and round-rimmed glasses appeared in a Ravenclaw robe. "I cry because I have no friends." she said sadly.  
"I can be your friend." Harry said. "I love making friends." Harry told her.  
"R-Really?" she asked in surprise. "Even if I'm mopy and sad all of the time?" she asked.  
"I think if you're sad and mopy all the time it's because you're lonely with no one to talk to. If you talk with me, you might not be so sad any more." Harry replied, honestly wanting to know this ghost girl.  
"Alright." she gave a shy smile. "Then let's start over. My name's Myrtle." she said.  
"Hello Myrtle, nice to meet you, I'm Harry. Will you be my friend?" he asked.  
Myrtle nodded enthusiastically. "Yes!" she said smiling. Happiness showing on her face. The two did become friends, they talked almost past curfew. After saying goodbye and that they'd talk again soon, Harry headed back to his common room, a smile on his face as he heard Myrtles happy laugh at finally having a friend. Back in the common room, he settled down to work on his homework, working on it late until the night. It was almost 11 when he finished his homework finally.  
"There no homework for the rest of break." Harry grinned happily at the accomplished pile of essays and work pages. Seeing the time, Harry happily went to bed in his room. Since he wasn't the only Slytherin to stay, he'd be in his dorm for the break, though he'd be spending plenty of time with his dad in their personal quarters, as soon as his dad's work load disappeared.  
So break started officially, and Harry was enjoying every minute of it. He would sleep in, in the mornings. After breakfast he'd spend an hour or so with Hagrid at his hut, talking about different magical creatures. Then he'd hang out with Seth and Ichiro in the common room or library, helping them with what ever they may need help with. Then he'd spend the rest of the time until lunch with his dad. After lunch, he'd have a couple hours of studying healing with Pomfrey, who said to call her Poppy when on break. After his classes with Poppy, Harry would spend the rest of the day talking with Myrtle and Nagi in his room(due to Myrtle being a ghost and able to pass through walls) and doing Christmas shopping. There were a couple days where the students would go outside to have an epic snow ball fight. It was with a grin that Harry, Seth, and Ichiro went up against the two older years. The group was having fun when Lockhart made an appearance, he was apparently making his way towards Hagrid's hut and everyone knew he had a problem with the half-giant. So, to get him away, they worked together and nailed the defense teacher with as many as they could, and Harry, being the prankster he was, spelled a couple yellow and when those landed on the teachers face, the group burst out laughing as the man ran off, yelling in disgust. The group of students burst out laughing, congratulating Harry on a good prank. Harry thanked them. That was how the break had started.  
It was into the second week of break when another attack happened. Harry was on his way to the common room after a successful lesson with Poppy, Nagi around his wrist when it happened. He was in the dungeons when the heavy feeling of something dark and evil crashed into him. Worse than it had been when Colin had been attacked. He fell to the floor painfully as Hogwarts showed him the dungeons. He could hear Bast call out for him to be careful. Hogwarts sent an urgent pulse to Poppy, one of the only few who had a connection to Hogwarts. Harry froze when he heard a scream coming from around the corner. He put on a burst of speed. He recognized that voice, even if it was a scream now. He turned the corner in time to see a dark figure disappear in the shadows. Harry rushed to the fallen boy. "SETH!" Harry cried in alarm, seeing who it was. 'Get dad!' he hissed to Nagi.  
'Not with that thing in the shadows Snakeling!' Nagi hissed back furiously. Harry was about to argue when they heard footsteps. Looking up they saw a hard breathing Ichiro.  
"Ichiro, get Prof. Snape!" Harry called. The boy shook but nodded quickly, running into the direction of their head of houses quarters. Harry cast a diagnostic spell. Seth had been petrified. 'So it's intentions aren't death just yet.' Harry realized, putting the boy's head in his lap. He had read up on people who were petrified. It was a lot like they were in a coma, but with their eyes open. They couldn't react to anything, even if they tried. But they could feel, sort of. It was a sub conscious thing. He looked up relieved to see that Prof. Snape, Madam Pomfrey, and even Flitwick come back with Ichiro.  
"What happened you two?" Severus asked the two boys, later in the infirmary where the three adults, Albus, Minerva, and the other two remaining students at the school were.  
"I was on my way back to the common room when I heard a scream from around the corner. So I ran to help. I turned the corner just in time to see this dark, cloaked shadow figure disappear into the shadows. Ichiro appeared a minute after that." Harry answered, not needing to lie about anything this time around.  
"You ran towards the danger?" Severus asked, upset at how close his son came to being attacked. Harry nodded, not meeting his dad's eyes.  
"And you?" Minerva asked Ichiro.  
"I heard the scream too, but I was a hallway over. It took me a minute to get there. When I got there, all I saw was Harry trying to help Seth." Ichiro answered. "Then he told me to go get Prof. Snape, so I did." the two boys answered. Severus felt a headache coming on.  
"Great, I have two Gryffindor-like Slytherins in my house. Perfect." he grumbled. The two boys gave sheepish smiles before they frowned to look at their petrified friend.  
"He'll be okay, right?" Ichiro asked softly.  
"Yes, he will." Harry said firmly. "Madam Pomfrey is the best healer there is, and she'll take good care of him. Prof. Sprout has the mandrake roots growing faster than normal, so we'll get them sooner too. And dad's the best at potions and he'll make the most perfect restoration potion you've ever seen and then we'll have everyone back safe and sound." Harry said confidently.  
Ichiro smiled. "You're right. They'll be fine." Harry nodded. "But, that's a Gryffindor and a Slytherin." Ichiro said with a frown. "And the heir wouldn't attack those in his or her own house, would they?" Ichiro asked softly.  
"That's a mystery that's being worked on by the teachers. So don't worry." Harry said. "Just be careful." Ichiro nodded.  
"We'll have to insure that there are heavy protection charms on all the common rooms. And I want the students to be extra careful for the rest of break. We can only do our best to be safe and careful." Dumbledore said gravely, the remaining people in the rooms nodding.  
"But, I don't want any one in the dungeons right now. This thing may still be down there." Minerva realized.  
"We'll have the ghost patrol the school so that we can be sure that what ever it is isn't down there still." Severus said. The other teachers nodded. "Until then, all four of you should either go to the library or go outside" he told them. The group looked at each other.  
"We'll go to the library." they all answered.  
"Very well, I'll escort you there and me or one of the other professors will pick you when the patrol is done. Also, the bloody Baron will stay in the library with you." the group nodded and they headed towards the library, a ghost telling them that the library was clear. Once there, he left them to Madam Pince. The group of four sat down at a table and brought out their homework or a book to read. It was only an hour before Severus came back telling them they were free to roam, as long as they were careful. With a sigh of relief the group left the library and went to the great hall as it was time for dinner.  
It was after dinner and Ichiro went to stay with Seth for a little bit. So Harry was making his way to his dorm where he fell into a fitful sleep. It was now two weeks into break, with another two weeks to go that Harry made a break through. He was heading down to his common room after sending off his last mail order for a present. It was after dinner, but two hours or so before curfew. Harry was stopped by Nagi softly hissing. 'Spiders, snakeling.' Harry looked towards the window, and sure enough, there were spiders running in a steady stream out a crack next to a window. 'We should check Hagrid's. Maybe spiders are there.' Nagi suggested, though he hated to. But they needed to get to the bottom of this. So far a half-blood and a muggle-born had been petrified. They were worried about their friends and it was getting personal. Harry nodded, heading downstairs. He looked around, but when no one was there, he opened the front doors and stepped out side.  
As soon as he stepped out side, he was thankful it was so cold in the school. Due to the cold in the school, he had been in his nice warm cloak, mittens, and boots. With determination, he headed towards the hut at the edge of the forest. Harry wasn't worried about Hagrid spotting him, due to him seeing Hagrid in the great hall still. So Harry made it down to the hut with out any problems. It was almost dark, but looking around, Harry spotted the spiders he was looking for. There was a ton of them, and they were all working in a steady line towards the forest. Taking a deep breath, boy and snake started into the darkness, following the long line they needed to follow.  
Harry did a good job keeping up with the spiders, but he did lose them a couple times, even with his wand lit as they got deeper into the forest. He started at a growl from nearby, but a loud, warning hiss from Nagi sent what ever it was running away. Harry continued to follow the spiders when he finally arrived to where he was aiming for. It was a large depression in the ground, the surfaces covered in web. This was Aargog's nest for sure. It only proved it for him when he spotted the many achromantulas surrounding the sides and trees over the nest. There in the center was the largest of the achromantulas. He was white with milky eyes, showing that he was indeed blind.  
"Who is it, that has entered my home?" the spider said.  
"You're Aragog, right?" Harry asked softly, but loud enough to be heard.  
"How do you know my name?" the spider asked in confusion.  
"Hagrid is a friend of mine. He told me about what happened in his third year. He told me where I could go to find out how to find you." Harry said gently, realizing that Hagrid must have understood what he was doing.  
"Why did you want to find me?" Aragog asked, suspicious of the child, despite the pure aura from him.  
"There are attacks happening at the school once more, but Bast isn't behind it." Harry answered. "But I do need Bast's help to understand what's going on. To help protect the students of the school."  
"He attacked students last time. Under the rule of a cruel boy." Aragog growled.  
"He attacked bullies and those that hurt others. The girl's death was a grave accident. Bast was destroyed because of it. Bast's only goal is to protect the students within Hogwarts's walls. Two children have been petrified. And we need all the help we can get to bring the one responsible down." Harry told the ancient spider. It was quiet for a while. "Please Aragog. I need to know what you know." Harry pleaded, desperate, because it was only a matter of time before one of Harry's friends were attacked, before someone actually died. Even he understood that. Aragog let out a deep breath.  
"All I can tell you, light child, is that the girl died in a restroom." Aragog told him heavily.  
"Thank you Aragog. I came here unannounced, with out permission, and I asked you questions even when you didn't want to answer them. I persisted. Now, I can only ask that you could one day forgive me for forcing this on you and your family." Harry told the great spider, knowing the pain and disrespect he had shown the great creature. Aragog couldn't help the surprise he felt at the sincerity in the apology, before giving a chuckle.  
"You are much like my friend Hagrid, in your respect and interest in creatures such as my self and others. You are forgiven young one. My children will safely guide you back to the light of these woods. I would not mind speaking with you once more." Aragog could feel the happiness coming from the boy.  
"Thank you Great Aragog. May your hunts be fruitful." Harry told the spider.  
"And may your mission be a success." Aragog replied and he sent four of his children with Harry. It was in a comfortable silence that the four achromantulas lead Harry to the thinner parts of the trees. Leaving him only when he could find the rest of the way himself. It was way past curfew when Harry crept into the school, Nagi letting him know if the coast was clear. He sank into bed and fell asleep, his thoughts full of what he learned.  
'Aragog said the girl who died was in a bathroom. Who could that-? Myrtle!' Harry realized, but his eyes closed against his will and he fell into blissful darkness. When Harry woke up, it was almost lunch, which surprised him because he hadn't thought he had gotten in that late last night. 'Ugh! Dad's probably worried. I missed our morning meeting.' Harry realized. 'And breakfast!' he realized even more alarmed. He wasn't supposed to miss meals. With a groan he got up, showered, got dressed, and left his common room. He wasn't surprised to see his dad out side the common room. "Morning dad." Harry said with a soft smile.  
"You weren't at breakfast Harry." Severus said sternly.  
"Sorry. I really just woke up." Harry told him with a sheepish grin.  
"Are you okay? To just be waking up... Are you feeling ill?" Severus asked.  
"No, I was just up really late reading a book." Harry said, a little ruefully. Severus sighed and shook his head exasperatedly.  
"Let's get you to lunch so you can eat." Severus sighed. Harry nodded happily. Together, father and son headed to lunch. After eating, Harry went to join Poppy for his lesson before going to visit Myrtle, remembering his last thoughts last night.  
"Harry!" Myrtle cried happily.  
"Myrtle!" Harry replied, happy to see her. The two talked for a moment before Harry brought up what he wanted to know. "Hey Myrtle, you died in this bathroom right?" Myrtle winced before nodding. "It was 50 years ago, right?" he asked carefully. She nodded once more. "Can you tell me about it?"  
"I was crying in this stall because Olivia Hornby made fun of my glasses," she began.  
"I like your glasses." Harry said honestly. She beamed.  
"Well, I heard someone enter the bathroom, then they started speaking in a weird language and it was a boys voice, so I opened the door to tell them to get out of the bathroom, then all I saw were these yellow eyes. And that was that." she finished.  
"I'm sorry about that. It must have been horrible." Harry said.  
"It was painless, and I learned the truth later about what happened, I learned from Tom and Bast about my death being an accident. I saw how sorry they were. I miss Bast, I would talk to him while Tom was still here." Myrtle admitted to the small boy. "But with that stupid entrance locked, I can't speak to him, so I've been lonely. Then you came and I wasn't so lonely anymore." she told him.  
"Would you like to speak with Bast again?" Harry asked. Myrtle nodded. "Then tell me where to find the entrance, because I can open it Myrtle." Harry told her. Myrtle lit up like the fourth of July.  
"It's over there, that one sink. It doesn't work, but the others do." Harry smiled and went up to the sink. Thinking first, he shot a locking spell at the bathroom door.  
"This one, right?" he asked, standing in front of one that was grimier than the others.  
"Yah. are you sure you want to do this?" she asked uneasy, suddenly nervous and feeling that she might be hurting Harry by wanting her old friend around once more.  
"Yah. Bast and me are working to protect the students in the school. There's a darkness going around that's petrifying students. We're trying to stop it." Harry told her. "Besides, I want to meet Bast in person." Harry added. Myrtle nodded and he smiled back. Harry turned to the sink, looking it over before finding a small snake symbol. "Here goes nothing." Harry figured, concentrating and hissing, 'Open.' the boy jumped back as the sink jerked before it sank into the ground, opening a large hole in the floor. "Well, if that doesn't say snake lair, then what does?" Harry muttered. "I'll be back, okay?" he told Myrtle. She nodded and smiled.  
"I'll be waiting for you." she told him with a smile. Harry nodded, and jumped into the pipe hole. Harry laughed happily, thinking this must be what one of those extreme slides from an extreme water park or something must be like. Harry started though when the pipe bottomed out and he slid to a stop seconds from the edge. Looking around the dim chamber, Harry lit his wand which showed the multiple skeletons of small rodent animals. Taking a deep breath, he stepped down and started gently walking through the chambers, making his way towards where he knew Bast would be located. It was a few minutes before he came across a circular stone door.  
'Open.' he hissed, watching as a snake with emerald eyes went through a groove on the edges, unlocking the door as it went. It slid open with a soft hissing noise, and Harry found himself looking into a dark hall. He took a breath and headed down the hall, torches lighting up as he passed. Soon Harry entered a large circular chamber, the one from his dreams. He looked around. 'Bast! You in here?' he called.  
'You made it Harry!' a voice called, causing him to look towards the sound. It was Bast in all his 25 foot glory.  
'Of course!' Harry replied, happy to see that Bast was okay. 'Now let's go. I have someone who wants to see you.' Harry told him, intriguing him.  
'Very well. Let's go.' With that, Harry was on Bast's back and they were slithering through the pipes and into the girls loo on the second floor.  
"Bast!" Myrtle cried happily.  
"Myrtle!" Bast announced happily, shrinking when Harry got off of him, so he was closer to the size of Harry.  
"You speak english?" Harry asked shocked.  
"I learned it from Salazar. It was hard, but I got it." Bast said happily. "I just like being able to speak my own tounge every now and then." he explained to the still shocked Harry.  
"I guess that makes sense." Harry admitted with a shrug. They all smiled. "So what do we do now?" Harry asked the other three in the room, as Nagi grew to be about the same size Bast was now.  
"I'll sneak around in the pipes to keep an eye on the students." Bast said.  
"And I can keep an eye out for anything unusual." Myrtle added, wanting to help her friends in their mission.  
"And I'll keep looking out for where the darkness might be, and who it might be." Harry said with a sigh. With their plans made, the trio separated, as Harry had to go to dinner. At dinner Harry talked and chatted with everyone, a lot of the weight on his shoulders having been taken off after finally finding the chamber and getting Bast out. The work load was now halved. It was with a bit of relief that the last week of break finally passed.  
Christmas had come and Harry and his dad enjoyed the peace and quiet of their private quarters. Harry had slept until almost noon, a true testament to how tired he had been lately. So when Harry opened his eyes to see it was nice and bright, he was shocked. Getting up and getting dressed quickly, he ran out to the living room to find his dad sipping tea with a smile on his face as his son came down. "I was starting to wonder if you had mistaken a dreamless sleep potion with a draught of the living death." Severus said with a soft smile as that got the reaction he wanted.  
"I would NEVER mistake those two potions. For one, their colors are way too different! And they smell different." Harry cried, shocked at the insult. Though when Harry saw his dad's smile, he couldn't help smile as well. Together, the father and son enjoyed their day together, not leaving their quarters until dinner that night.  
'Honestly, it feels too long since I last spent time with Harry like this.' Severus thought with a soft smile. If only he knew what was to come and just how close he was going to make sure his son stayed with him.

A/N: Review and let me know what you think.


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N:** Here's the January chapter. I hope that you can forgive for the wait. Thanks to S for being a great beta. I hope this chapter is good for every one.

 **Chapter 7 January  
**  
Harry was in the great hall as he awaited the return of his friends. He didn't have to wait long before his friends came in, faces red from the snow and cold. "Happy New Years you guys!" Harry called to them, going forward and hugging them. "How was your break?" he asked excitedly.

"It's been just fantastic." they all replied as they made their way towards the room of requirement. Once inside, they ate lunch and shared stories from their breaks. Harry sadly told them of the attack on Seth and how him and Ichiro had both tried to help the boy. They felt awful for what the small boy had gone through.

"We're sorry Harry." Hermione told him, the girls hugging the small boy. He nodded with a heavy sigh.

"It'll be all over the school in a few days. Some of us have already given gifts and condolences to the family." Harry let them know.

"We'd like to give something as well." Daphne and Neville said. The others nodded and after talking it over, they ordered some little things and all wrote notes to the family, expressing their condolences and their wish to help in any way. It was time for dinner when the group finally left the Room of Requirement. At dinner the group seperated to their tables for the night. It was with full stomaches that the students in the school went to bed, classes starting up again the day after tomorrow.

The last day of break, the friends hung out and talked with each other. It had felt like a long time since they had done this. In the Room of Requirement the group sat down in a circle with each other. Once everyone was settled and they decided to talk about what ever came to their minds. According to Neville and Daphne, things in the Hufflepuff dorm was going well. Cedric and a couple of the older Hufflepuffs had been helping them with the subjects they'd had problems with. They'd gotten better and felt good about their classes when school started back up tomorrow.

Theo and Hermione told them, exciteably, how the entire Ravenclaw dorm was holding a powow for all years. Four sixth and seventh years were in charge. They'd have a game out of it. And they were all excited because the winner in each year would get sugar quills and a book that none of them have read before. It was going to be really competetive and they both looking forward to it that night.

Draco, Blaise, and Harry told them how the Slytherin dorm was dueling with others in their dorm. It would be safe and with no serious harmful curses or spells. Heck, even Severus was refereering the duel. The groups were so excited about their houses activities for the night.

It was after lunch when the group decided to go visit Hagrid. After bundling up, the group headed down to the hut at the edge of the forest. Harry knocked on the door, all of them jumping when he opened it with a cross bow pointed at them.

"Whoa! Hagrid, what's with the crossbow?!" Theo and Blaise cried in surprise, Draco, Blaise, and Neville dragging Harry and the girls behind them on instinct.

"Sorry about that kids. But you can't be too careful now adays." he told them, looking embarrassed about the incident, as well as guilty for startling them. "Come on in. I put some tea on. You could use it by the looks of it." he said, ushering them in side the hut. The group sat wherever there was room. Harry, Hermione, and Daphne sat around the table with Hagrid as Nevile and the others sat on the large bed with ease. Once everyone had a hot cup of tea, they once more started conversing on their breaks and year so far. Draco, Blaise, Theo, and Daphne had been to the Ministry's Yule Ball that year, as had the Potters.

The four of them told the group about how the Potters and Cornelius Fudge, the Minister, had made fools of themselves. Fudge had been tripping over himself to please the Potters. He got them what ever they needed personally. They were boasting about having the Minister on their sides for anything and no one save Fudge's assisstance, Dolores Umbridge, was happy. The Potter's were being fools and the Minister was being so pathetic. Many of the party guests were muttering about how pathetic it was of the minister and how obnoxious the Potters were being. Many flocked to the Malfoy's and Zambini's.

"There's an election for the new Minister of Magic coming around in a while, the date's not fully set, but Fudge's hopes aren't looking too good. Even the Potter's followers are starting to get fed up with them." Blaise told the group. The others nodded, glad that the Potter's hold on society was starting to waver. It was starting to get late when the group finally left to go to dinner before they turned in for bed that night.

It was two weeks back into the new semester, and it was late and Harry had finally gone to bed after finishing the last of his homework. He was in bed, but he couldn't sleep though. The events of the break, no, the year, were going through his head. He sighed, he just couldn't sleep.

'Maybe I can go visit Aragog. I'd like to learn more about his family and achromantulas. There's stuff you can't learn in the books.' with that as his goal, Harry quietly got up, dressed, and left the dorm. Careful to dodge the teachers that roamed the halls, such as Minerva, Fillius, and the Potter idiots. As he left the castle, he realized that his dad wasn't among the teachers in the halls. 'Must be asleep or grading.' he thought. Without alerting anyone in the castle, Harry snuck outside and silently crept through the grounds, and into the trees of the Forbidden Forest.

Severus was enjoying the quiet of the forest. He had come out here this late to collect a couple items that he needed for some of his more advanced potions. He was also out here though, because he had a feeling something would happen. Some how, he felt it would involve his son, and he felt he wasn't going to be happy when it did. He was brought out of his thoughts by the sound of soft foot-steps near by. He sighed, it was definately a student. 'Damnit. They should know better than to come in here, let alone this far. It's dangerous.' he thought to himself. He went in search of the wayward student.

He saw a figure in the trees. When the child came into the light, he felt his blood boil. " _ **HARRY HADRIAN SNAPE!"** _ Severus Snape roared, making Harry whip around, eyes wide and fearful. And, Severus noted, guilty. "What, young man, are you doing in the _**FORBIDDEN**_ Forest?" Severus growled lowly. Harry gulped.

How was he supposed to answer that with out revealing EVERYTHING that he was trying so HARD to keep AWAY from his DAD? To keep him from the dangers that might happen. He promised to tell the adults when things got dangerous or he got put in danger, but he hadn't been put in danger as it was. He didn't know what to say except. "I wanted to meet some centaurs. And I was looking to see what plants grew in the forest." he explained, rather convincingly, he thought. His dad was neither amused or believing.

"We are returning to the castle young man, and you will be grounded to our personal quarters until I decide otherwise. You will also have detention every night between myself and Filch, for at least a week. You can't hang out with your friends or Draco outside of classes and meals. You will go to breakfast and classes, but every free-period or break you will return to our quarters without your friends. After dinner, you will report to your detentions, and then go straight back to our quarters. I also want a 6 foot essay on why you're in trouble and I want that at the end of this school week. And, as much as I despise having to do it, I'm taking 40 points from Slytherin. Do you understand Harry?" Severus asked.

Harry nodded with a gulp. "Y-yes sir." Harry stuttered. "Sorry." Guilt was heavy in his eyes, voice, and heart. His dad had been speaking with a calm and quietly calculated voice. Which meant he was seething on the inside. 'I can't believe how STUPID I was. What was I thinking?' Harry wondered to himself as his father led them out of the forest. Together the duo arrived at the castle, causing Minerva and Filius to be shocked that a student had slipped past them. Once inside their quarters, Severus called for a house elf to bring Harry's school bag and books into his rooms, since Harry already had extra clothes in his room. He was planning on Harry being in their quarters for a long while. Once that was done, he sent Harry off to bed, where Nagi was waiting. Once inside, Nagi lectured Harry for a good 20 minutes about leaving with out him, let alone at all. Especially with how dangerous it was for him to be alone. With a heavy mind and conscious, Harry fell into a fitful sleep, under the watchful eyes of his father and familiar.

The next day was very painful for Harry. It was right before breakfast and all of his friends were waiting out side the great hall for him. Upon seeing his dejected and guilty look, they rushed over to him. "Harry, what's wrong?" Hermione asked quietly. Harry took a deep, calming breath before he answered in an almost whisper.

"I'm grounded." he said.

"Wh-what?" Theo asked, not understanding, much like the rest of the group.

"To my dad's personal quarters until he sees fit for me to return to the dorm." Harry elaborated.

"Why? Is that all?" Daphne asked. Harry shook his head.

"I can't hang out with any of you until he tells me other wise. It's to breakfast, classes, lunch, and dinner. During any free-periods, I'm to return to our quarters alone to do home work or what ever else I have. After dinner it's strait to my detention with either Filch or dad. After the detention, strait back to our quarters. He also took 40 points from Slytherin." Harry told them.

"Hade, Uncle Sev's usually chill. What did you do to make him so upset?" Draco asked curiously, though still in shock at such a severe punishment. It wasn't even that bad when Harry got caught about the dragon last year.

"I-I...He caught me out of bed...way past curfew...with out Nagi...in the Forbidden Forest." Harry sighed defeated. He had his head down as they took that all in. He flinched at the 6 shrill cries.

"YOU DID WHAT?! YOU WENT INTO THE FOREST?" they cried.

"Are you daft Snape? You know how dangerous it is, especially with all of the attacks!" Daphne cried.

"What were you thinking Harry Hadrian Snape?" Neville finally made his voice known. Harry decided to go with a semi-truth.

"I couldn't sleep, and I've wanted to meet some magical creatures." he said softly.

"If you can't sleep, you sneak into the kitchen for some warm milk or come get into bed with me like when we were small Hade, you don't go gallivanting into the forest at night." Draco told the boy, voice filled with his disappointment at Harry' actions. Harry continued looking down, not meeting any of his friends eyes. He was surprised when his friends all hugged him.

"Damnit Harry. You could have died. I can't imagine how Severus must have felt seeing you un-protected in the forest." Blaise said with a sigh.

"How about we all go eat. We'll all stay at the same table today." Hermione said, realizing meals and classes were all they would have with each other for a while. Nodding the group of friends went into the hall, gaining many students attention as they all sat at the Hufflepuff table. The day went by painfully for everyone.

But by the time a week had gone by, they were finally used to seeing each other only at meals and classes. And a few days had been all it took for word to get around that Harry had been grounded. It gave Liam Potter and his fan club enough fuel to pester him about it. It was the end of the second week of his punishment, and the end of the third week of the month, and he was in their personal quarters-which with Liam's never letting him live down how he broke his fathers trust, had become a sanctuary- as it was his free period. After setting aside all his finished homework, he had finished his dad's essay a day ago, he saw it was time for his potions class. It was with a sense of dread that he left their quarters and headed down the hall way to the potions classroom. Once there he saw all of the students were actually there on time. He was the last student to arrive, which was a rarity.

They were waiting for Severus to arrive when Harry felt the evil he was familiar with now, permeate the castle. He leaned slightly on the wall as he was hit with a dizzy spell that lasted only a minute. Harry could hear Bast in his head. _'It has attacked once more. And once more we are too late.'_ Harry heard Bast's voice. _'But there has been no life taken. It has petrified once more.'_

'DAMNIT! How do we keep missing this thing?' Harry wondered in his head. The students were discussing why they thought the punctual potions master was almost five minutes late for class. Some idiot Gryffindor-probably Ron, no, definitely Ron, thought the man had finally gotten sacked. It was 5 minutes later that Severus arrived, paler than before and looking worried-which alerted the students that something bad had happened. Seeing the students all safe, including his son, had him sagging slightly with relief, though only those who knew what to look for could see it.

"Professor, what happened?" Pansy asked the tall man. Severus looked tired as he answered.

"Everyone to the Great Hall, things will be explained there." he answered, surprising them all with the hesitance and gentleness in his voice. It was in absolute silence they arrived at the great hall, where the rest of the school was assembled. After they all took their seats, they looked up at Dumbledore as he stood.

"Students, it is with great sorrow that I inform you, there has been another attack." he told them. They all gasped, but Harry was the only one not surprised. Bast was usually right about the attacks. "It was the Ravenclaw Prefect, Ms. Penelope Clearwater who has been petrified." he informed them. Plenty of first years, from all the houses started crying softly, as did plenty of the other students. Penelope had been liked by almost everyone, much like the other victims. "From now on," Dumbledore continued, "NO STUDENTS are to wander alone. You will be guided to your classes by a teacher or head boy or girl. Curfew is officially at 7pm, an hour after dinner. Be sure to follow these rules. They are placed for your own safety." he told them. "Your last class of the day has been canceled. You will return to your common rooms, and your head of house and house Prefects will lead you down to dinner when it is time." he told them. With that, the students were lead away by their heads and prefects.

Harry was wondering by the time they reached the dorm if he would be made to stay in the dorms, or still in his fathers quarters. Severus seemed to realize what Harry was thinking , because as he had his students file into the common room, he kept Harry by his side. "Harry, I still want you to stay in our quarters, you are still grounded. However, I will be there with you for the most part, and when I'm not there, I'll have Salazar's portrait guarding the room. I will come get you before we get the rest of the house for dinner or meals, understood?" he asked his son. Harry sighed but nodded. "Good." Once the last snake was in their den, he led Harry to their quarters where he stayed with Harry until almost dinner time when he had to go make some rounds, leaving Slytherins portrait in the room to act as a barrier against whatever was out there. The next week was constantly filled with worry and unease. It was towards the last week of January that it happened.

It was breakfast time when Dumbledore stood up, telling the students that Gilderoy had an announcement. Smiling at the crowd, he stood and started to speak. "Due to the dangers the students have had to face, Dumbledore has agreed to let me host a Dueling Club with our resident potions master for you to learn self-defense. It will take place after lunch today, since there won't be any classes. Who-ever wishes to participate need only stay after lunch, I hope to see you all there." Gilderoy said. A majority of the Gryffindors applauded while the Hufflepuffs and other houses only did it to be polite.

"Now we can find out if he's all bark and no bite." Harry muttered to his friends, who nodded their agreement. It wasn't long after the announcement that the Weasley twins had a poll going around on whether or not Lockhart can defend himself, or if he'd get injured or die (Whether it was by his own mistake, Severus's wand, or a random students wand didn't matter). It did get a majority of the students attention though, and all the Slytherins decided to go just so they could see their head curse the annoying man who seemed to have it out for their head's son, as it was obvious to any one with a brain. And Severus wasn't happy about it either, even if he was still mad at his son for running into the forest defenseless.

So after lunch, the majority of the students stayed behind. Once it was time, the tables where replaced with a large stage structure. The teachers, save Snape and Gilderoy left and once they had everyone's attention, Gilderoy began. "Welcome to the dueling club and I must say, I'm very happy that so many of you could make it." he told them with a smile. What he didn't know was that the majority of the students were there to see if either Lockhart was skilled, or just to see the potions professor jinx their defense professor. "Me and my assistant, Professor Snape will show you how to defend your selves from curses and jinxes. First, let's give you a demonstration." he told the group of children.

They watched as the two professors stood a few feet away from each other on either side of the stage. "In a proper duel, you first have to give a bow to your opponent." he gave a grand bow, while Severus inclined his head, a steely look on his face. They could all see that the look was nerving Lockhart. "Now, we duel!" Lockhart said.

Before Lockhart could do anything, Severus simply muttered a spell "Expelliarmus!" and disarming Lockhart and sending him to the other side of the room, off the stage. Slytherins, Ravenclaws, and Hufflepuffs-as well as the twins since they were present- sent up cheers at that. Severus was surprised, but smirked. It was such a great feeling, that he almost, smiled. Almost. He wasn't going to send some kid to the infirmary for fainting from seeing he could actually smile.

"That was a good idea, showing them that spell professor." Lockhart said, once he was able to stand again. "Where's my-oh thank you Ms. Weasley." he said. "But, I must say it was obvious to a trained duelist such as my self that you would use that spell." he told the potions professor, who scowled darkly. "I was just allowing them to see the effect. I could've easily blocked that move." he added. "Now let's have our students practice some dueling." he said, seeing that Severus was a hairs breath from cursing him.

Going around the room, the students were put into groups of two. Out of their group, Hermione and Theo were against each other. Neville and Daphne were paired up together. Blaise and Draco were put together. And Harry ended up being pitted against Ginny Weasley. Much to his displeasure. "Remember students, you are just disarming each other." Lockhart told them.

"There will be no foolish-ness and if even one student does anything other than the Expelliarmus spell, they will receive a weeks worth of detention split between me and Filch." Severus added darkly to his students. As the teachers went around, the groups were quick.

Hermione had disarmed Theo very quickly. Neville had quickly disarmed Daphne. And Draco and Blaise disarmed each other at the same time. Harry didn't even have to try. Ginny literately dropped her wand in the middle of taunting Harry. Not even hesitating he had cast the spell the second it was in her hands.

Other students hadn't been so lucky to do such a good job. Though surprisingly, Liam Potter, who had been present, had successfully disarmed his friend Ron. Other students cast a multitude of different spells. Lockhart and Severus went around having to break up the different groups. At least six students had gotten detention, though none of them had been Slytherins. And Severus only took points from the Gryffindor rule breakers.

"That was a mess for the most part." Lockhart sighed. "Maybe we should just have two students go against each other on the dueling platform." he muttered. His eyes widened at the idea. "YES! Mr. Potter and Mr. Snape, Harry, onto the dueling platform. Let's have you two show off this spell for the others." Lockhart told the group of students. Students were surprised and shocked, Liam and Harry's animosity for each other well known. Harry though thought it wouldn't be too bad. And seeing Liam just saunter onto the stage like he was the holder of the world (the exact opposite in the school) it made him just want to smack him, but humiliating him in front of the student body would have to work for now.

"Are you sure about this Harry?" Severus asked his son as he got onto the side. They watched as Lockhart dropped his wand before patting the boy who lived on the back and left the stage. Harry nodded.

"Pretty sure dad." Harry replied. Severus nodded.

"Begin!" Lockhart said. The boys raised their wands and sent the spells towards each other. Both shouting the dis arming spell. The spells met in the middle and Harry's shot at the other boy, Harry's over powering Liam's. Liam ducked and the spell flew over him, sending Lockhart back a few steps.

"SERPENSORTA!" a voice from some where cried. A poof and the largest snake any of them had seen appeared. It was an inky black color with venomous green eyes, remarkably close to Harry's had appeared.

 _'Who disturbs my slumber? I will make you pay for this dis-respect.'_ the snake hissed, though only Harry and Nagi could understand the creature. It's eyes found Harry and hissed, the child seemed like the least likely culprit, but the snake was angry and not thinking right. And Harry got that real quick. Harry was frozen as the snake started towards them. Never had a snake been a threat to him before like this, and his dad was too far away to do any thing.

Suddenly a silver blur shot out of no where. _'Don't touch my snakeling! He has the blood of Salazar and is your king!'_ the blur hissed as it tumbled with the black snake.

' _NAGI? STOP! Don't fight! He's just confused and not thinking strait.'_ Harry cried, running to stop the two fighting snakes, but his dad grabbed him and moved him away shortly before the spitting and hissing ball of black and silver went past where he had been standing. Finally Nagi had proved his dominance and prowess over the black snake as he grew to half his full size. He now greatly out powered the dark snake.

Harry heard his dad whisper a spell and the black snake disappeared in a poof of smoke. Nagi gave a hissing gloat to the area before moving to rest at Harry's feet. _'So much for keeping your parsel tounge abilities a secret.'_ Nagi grumbled. Harry looked up confused to see the horrified looks of the students that weren't his friends or at least some part of Slytherin. Even Dumbledore and the Potters were there, coming in to see what the ruckus had been about.

"We will take this to my office at once." Dumbledore said. "I will not have a poisonous and deadly snake around these students." he told them, motioning to the silver snake who hissed warningly at the headmaster. They could see the brief flash of fear in the mans eyes.

 _'Nagi, stop antagonizing people and get back around my wrist.'_ Harry hissed quietly, but in the silence of the room, was deathly loud, making Harry wince when so many people flinched at the sound.

"Let's go Harry. Since Nagi is your familiar and therefor not harmful unless protecting you, the man can not get rid of him." Severus whispered, lips not moving enough for any one to read them. Harry nodded as Nagi decided to sit on his shoulders. Together Severus, Harry, Nagi, Dumbledore, Lockhart, the Potters and the other head of houses went up to the Headmasters office, the other teachers and the head boy and girl being told to take students back to their common rooms or to stay in the great hall. The meeting had lasted a good almost hour.

"This creature is a danger to our students, you must see why it can't be allowed to stay." James told the group present. Only Lockhart and Lily agreed. Dumbledore was quiet.

"You can't get rid of the snake Potter." Minerva said haughtily.

"Why not?" Lily said. "Dumbledore could be allowed, since he is this school's headmaster." Lily growled.  
"Nagi is a familiar. You can't separate a familiar from it's witch or wizard." Harry told them.

"Lies! No one is allowed a snake!" Lockhart said.

"There is a spell we can cast to prove it." Filius said, attracting the groups attention.

"Oh yes, that'll prove this is just the boy's attempt at attention." James said. Severus and the other heads hissed with Nagi at the man who paled.

"Very Well." Dumbledore said. He looked at Severus who looked at Harry who nodded. " _Familiarus Revelus_." Dumbledore said. This spell would cause the familiar of the witch or wizard the spell was cast on to glow. A picture of the familiar would be shown if the familiar wasn't there. They watched as Harry and Nagi both glowed a green and silver color before showing the tie between them.

"That settles it." Pomona Sprout said with a grin. "The snake stays." she said.

"Very well, but there's the issue of the snake's danger to other students." Dumbledore began.

"Nagi is only a danger to a student if that students tries to harm my son. In which case it is my son's familiar's right to attack in order to defend his master." Severus said.

"Very well, but out side of your dorm, Harry, your familiar shall be down sized." Dumbledore said.

Harry nodded. "He usually is sir." he answered.

Dumbledore sighed in defeat. "You may go." he grunted. Harry nodded and left after saying good bye to the head of houses. Severus sighed. Now his son would be in more danger if any thing since rumors would spread that Harry was the one behind the attacks. This was a great way to end the first month of the new year. Severus thought with a grumble. Merlin he didn't want to think about the upcoming month.

Dumbledore watched as the teachers, both triumphant and resigned left the room. Severus's son was a mystery. So much he didn't know, yet somehow he knew there was more to the boy. He was powerful. He was also hiding something from every one in that room. Even Severus, he could tell, knew something was up. 'But Severus has no idea what his son's hiding from him.

'Speaking of son, why didn't Severus tell me about the boy when he first got the child. If he remembered, Severus didn't have the boy 7 years ago. The boy was 12, and had to have been taken in by Severus when the boy was 6. The same time Harry Potter had died so tragically.' Dumbledore thought on that for a moment. 'Could Severus's Harry be Lily's and James's deceased son?' Dumbledore contemplated that thought for a moment. "No, impossible. I would have seen it in either Severus's mind or the boy's. It's just a coincidence with the name is all. Severus is loyal to me. Maybe it's just a long line of squibs from Slytherin's line that he has the parseltongue ability." Dumbledore said out loud to himself. He nodded. The theory was sound to him.

"Though, since Liam is a horcrux of Voldemort's, I wonder when his parsel tongue abilities will reveal themselves. Guess we'll just have to wait and see." Dumbledore leaned back, popping a lemon drop in his mouth. 'Though I wish I could under stand parsel tongue. I bet the serpents have many stories they could pass on. Stories...and secrets.' Dumbledore watched as the sun set over the forbidden forest, lost in his thoughts. 

A/N: There we go. Please review and let me know what you think.


	8. Chapter 8

Here's the February chapter. Hope you all enjoy and sorry for making you wait.

 **Chamber Chapter 8: February**

It was still cold as February crept onto the residents of Hogwarts. Windows were still fogged up, there was still a little bit of snow on the ground, and pretty much every student could be seen in sweaters and scarves. It was also on the first day of the month that Severus finally, reluctantly, allowed Harry to return to his dorm rooms. "Harry, come here please." Severus called out. He and Harry were still in their personal rooms on this Sunday morning and he had decided almost 3 weeks was long enough of a grounding for his son's little trip in the forest.

Harry was still in his pajamas as he entered the living room, smiling at his dad and greeting him. "What is it dad?" Harry asked, sitting on the chair across from the man.

"I have decided that this evening, after dinner, you can return to your dorms and start hanging out with your friends once more." he told the 12-year-old boy who launched himself across the space between them to hug his dad tightly.

Harry had enjoyed the time he had with his dad, but he was greatly missing his friends. "Thank you, dad." Harry told the man who had returned the hug.

"Now Harry, there are a few rules though." Severus told the boy who sat back and nodded. "First off, outside the dorms and common room, I don't want you alone, and Nagi is to remain by your side save for when he is hunting." he told his son the first rule. Harry nodded. "Second, I don't want you to fall behind at all in your work and always get that done before you go have fun." Harry nodded once more. "And finally, you are to let me, or a prefect know where you are at all times." Severus's eyes narrowed when his son frowned before finally nodding his acceptance. "Good. Now, do you have any more homework?" Severus asked.

"No dad. I finished it all last night." Harry told him.

"Very well, how about a game of wizards' chest since this will be your last day in here?" he suggested.

"Yes! I'll go get the board." Harry said, running into a side room. Severus chuckled before having a house elf bring them some tea and biscuits. Father and son spent the rest of the day in their quarters enjoying the last bit of Harry's grounding. At last, it was time for dinner.

Severus and Harry went to the Slytherin common room down the hall. It was quiet as they entered the common room. All students from first to seventh were waiting patiently for their Head of House and his son. After Harry's revealed ability of Parsel tongue, which only a few Slytherins had known about, none had been afraid, but impressed and greatly admired the small boy. This had been a big help for Harry, to know that at least his house didn't hate him.

Severus nodded and lead his house out of the dungeons, meeting up with Hufflepuff in the Entrance Hall, meaning Ravenclaw and Gryffindor were most likely already in the Great Hall. Like the Slytherins, most of the Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs accepted Harry after his reveal. Many knew Harry through others in their house, and they decided that just because he had the Parsel tongue gift didn't mean he was evil. He was just related to the great founder himself. Besides, he wouldn't harm other children.

Dinner was a light mostly muted affair, since the attacks had everyone down and uneasy. Dumbledore stood at the end of dinner. "Attention students!" he told them, getting their attention. "I would like to announce that the next quidditch match, Hufflepuff versus Ravenclaw, will be held at the beginning of March during the first week." he told them, successfully cheering the students up. "But to play, our players need to keep good grades. And everyone must stay safe. Do not wander alone or break the rules that have been placed out for you. Now, off to bed, your heads of houses will escort you to your common rooms. Once there, prefects and head boy and girl are in charge." he told the children.

Everyone stood to follow their heads of houses. Once Slytherin got to their common room, Severus followed his students in. "The headmaster is correct. I want everyone with someone always. Everyone is to let me, or the prefects or head boy and girl know where you are going always. There is no breaking these rules. You are to be in the common room an hour before your normal curfew. I will be calling role every morning and every night. If I find that any one is not here, they will have a detention with me for a long time. Is this clear all of you?" he asked his house, the Slytherins all nodded. It had been obvious that their head of house was stressing this so much because he was worried about all his students. "Good. Well it's time for me to go patrol. Prefects, you are to make sure the students stay in here. And all of you are to continue to watch out for each other. And Draco and Blaise," he told the two boys, "Please keep an eye on my son. He has a habit off running off and finding trouble." he said.

"You mean, Harry's off his grounding?" Blaise said. Severus nodded.

"FINALLY!" Draco and Blaise said happily, grabbing the boy they had only seen at meals and classes. Harry laughed at his friends' antics.

"Yes. I know. Now, I need to head off. Remember the rules and the consequences should you disobey them." He told his Slytherins before turning and leaving with a 'Good night' to his snakes.

"Hade, let's play gob stones!" Draco told his small friend. Harry grinned and nodded. The trio spent the rest of the night playing gob stones and wizards chess, where the rest of the Slytherin house joined in their tournament. Much like the wisdom seeking Raven house, Slytherins enjoyed a good, wit tournament every now and then. They had also missed the small snake in their common room. That night everyone went to bed, a little bit of the stress and unease from the attacks released from their minds, allowing them to fall asleep a little quicker than they normally would have.

Harry, Draco, and Blaise ran into their friends when all the houses had met together, getting to the entrance hall at the same time. "Harry!" the others called, running to their small friend. Harry smiled as he greeted them, letting them know he was officially off his grounding. They were so happy about it, that they missed the hushed whispers and narrowed eyes coming from the majority of the Gryffindor house that had been directed at Harry. Though the twins and Lee made it a point to secretly charm some of the people with the harshest things to say, Liam included. They gave silent screams as they realized that they were unable to say anything at all. No one noticed. It was towards the end of the breakfast that Dumbledore stood and made an announcement.

"I'd like to inform the students that starting today, there will be year group study sessions in the library. Today, after dinner, all seventh years will report to the library for their year group study sessions. This is to help different years study more together so that way they can get most out of their education. Tomorrow night, first years will have a study session in the library, followed by sixth, then second and so on. The groups will be under the watchful eyes of Madam Pince and one of our teachers, tonight will be Minerva watching over you. That is all. If teachers will lead their classes to class so they can learn, our day can begin." Dumbledore said, dismissing his staff and students. It was loudly and with a lot of talking that the different years headed to their classes, following their teachers.

As it turned out, surprisingly, the different year study group sessions were working out quite well for the students. It was Thursday and all the second years were now in the library after a filling dinner. So far, there hadn't been any more attacks, and the school's staff and students were slowly relaxing a bit. Harry and his friends were sitting at one of the larger tables very deep in their studying, like most of the students. Even Draco and Blaise were studying and doing their homework on their own, only turning to their friends for help occasionally. It was also a relief for most students that it was Prof. Sprout in charge of watching them for their study hall.

They had been in the two-hour study hall for only an hour when it started. Liam started being his usual prat self as soon as Prof. Sprout went to talk with Madam Pince about some of her rarer books on herbology. "So, you know what they say about people who can speak to snakes, right?" he asked the Gryffindor's in his group. Immediately, the rest of the second years stiffened. They all knew where this was headed.

"No Liam, tell us." one of the second-year girls requested, simpering a little.

" Well, they say that they're very evil and dark wizards. Pretty pathetic in this case." he said conspiringly. "And only a dark wizard would go around attacking other students." he added.

"You think that girly freak is the heir going around attacking others?" Ronald Weasley asked, more stupid than ever. Liam nodded.

"It only makes sense. I mean, he has a dark ability. He despises not being the center of attention. He hates to be out smarted, and he's ruthless." Liam said, completely ignoring how he had just described himself, rather than Harry, minus the dark ability part. "And don't forget, he keeps breaking the rules and he went into the forbidden forest. Really, what else is he doing out there if it's not something dark related?"

"Now that's got to be the stupidest thing ever." a raven claw girl scoffed.

"Yah, Harry has the parsel tongue ability. It doesn't mean he's dark, it just means he has a gift and is related to Salazar Slytherin." a Hufflepuff boy, Justin, added.

"And it's you who hates not being the center of attention, you attention seeking pig." Pansy said menacingly.

"Also, you're the one who hates being out smarted. Though honestly you should be used to it by now. It's not even that hard." Susan said, surprising everyone with how one of the sweetest Hufflepuffs just called the other kid an idiot.

"What?" Liam couldn't help but ask.

"Point proven Susan." Theo told the girl who nodded with a grin.

"And let's all remember how it's Liam over there that's ruthless. He bullies every kid from every house that's in his year or first year. All because he thinks he's the top of the world. But he doesn't exactly matter, except to complete idiots." a Ravenclaw boy added. Everyone glared at Liam and the Gryffindor second years. Harry smiled at all the other second years, happy that they didn't hate him. When it looked like the Gryffindors were going to retort, some of the Ravenclaws and Slytherins casted a silencio on the Gryffindors.

"That takes care of that. Now we can all actually study." Hermione said with a grin. With that the Raves, Slyths, and huffs all got together in a large group to help each other on anything they may have trouble with. When Prof. Sprout came over she saw the large group and all the Gryffindors trying to talk, but not making any noise. She looked at the other three houses, an eyebrow raised in a similar manner to Severus.

"Do I even want to know?" she asked. They all looked at the others before Neville answered.

"They were disrupting our study hall." he answered simply. And it wasn't even a lie. Prof. Sprout nodded.

"Carry on then." she said with a grin. Soon the study hall was over, and everyone was lead back to their dorms. The first week of February passed with little incident.

It was late into the night as he went through the hidden passage way in his dorm rooms bathroom. He found the secret passage towards the beginning of the year. It was hard to find. In the back of the room was a snake statue. It seemed to look towards the back stall, making everyone uncomfortable and so no one, except him, would use that stall. He was the only one not bothered. Besides, there was a door on the stall any ways. The entrance to passage, came from inside that stall. It had been by accident he found it. He had slipped and tried to catch himself on the wall, causing the brick to give in and the door to appear. He was too shocked, and the door closed. It took him five minutes to find it again.

He sighed as the passage came to an end, he opened the passage and stepped out of the empty stall and opened the door into Myrtle's bathroom. Waiting for him was said ghost girl who swooped down and gave him a ghost version of a hug. "Harry! I'm so glad you're okay." she told the boy. Harry smiled, having missed the ghost. Nagi slid to the ground.

"Hey Myrtle! How have you been?" he asked happily.

"I'm good. I was especially good when I heard that you had run into the forbidden forest, alone, without any back up despite knowing how dangerous it was." She had said all of that with sarcasm. Harry gave a sheepish smile.

"Yah, sorry. I wanted to talk to Argog and find out more about achromantulas. And to see if there was anything he could tell me." Harry admitted with a shrug. Myrtle nodded and spent the next few minutes lecturing Harry about being alone despite any circumstances. This was the scene Bast slithered into.

"Everyone." he said.

 _'Bassst. Long time no sssseee.'_ Nagi told the great serpent.

 _'Ssssame to you, oh healing one.'_ Bast answered back. "Back to bussinesss though. What do we know?" he asked, switching back to English for Myrtle's sake.

"Well, we know that this guy, whoever he is hasn't discriminated against any one. I mean, we've had a muggle born from Gryffindor get petrified. Mrs. Norris has been petrified. A half-blood from Ravenclaw has been petrified as well, and don't forget the pure-blood from Slytherin is in the same condition." Harry sighed.

"Plus, death doesn't seem to be the objective here either, so far." Myrtle added.

 _'We have ssssooo little to go on.'_ Nagi muttered.

Harry was going to reply when he felt a slight heat from his pocket. He knew it was Tom's diary. He had had the diary on him all the time and would sometimes write to the diary. "The diary. Doesss he have sssomething to sssay?" Bast asked curiously. Harry nodded. Whenever the part of Voldemort that was in the diary wished to speak to the boy, he would warm up and let him realize that.

Harry always had a small ink pot and quill in his pockets, so he sat down on the ground and took them out. He opened the diary and started writing. /What is it Tom? / he asked.

\I want to help in any way I can.\ he answered. Harry relayed it back to the others.

"Well, he isss very limited in the diary without a life sssourcce." Bast replied.

"I'm sure we could find a spell or something that will allow him to become more corporeal." Myrtle insisted. Harry relayed it to Tom.

\Unfortunately, I don't know the spell, but there is one spell that allows a sentient item to become corporeal\ Tom answered. \It might be in the seventh-year spell or transfiguration books.\ he let Harry know.

"Well, we alssso need to check in the foresst for anything sssussspiccioussss. And ssspeaking to Argog could prove to be a good idea. And the hallwayssss need to be monitored." Bast said with a sigh. They were all quiet for a while as Harry relayed everything to Tom.

\Maybe we can have you look for the spell and set the others to a task.\ Tom replied.

"Well that would make sense." Harry said. "I mean I'm not allowed away from everyone. And definitely not allowed in the forest." he grumbled.

"Hmmm. I can't leave the castle, but Nagi and Bast can. I know! I'll patrol the hallways and classrooms at night and during the day to keep an eye on the students and teachers, you know, look for any one suspicious or where they're not supposed to be." Myrtle said.

"And while you're taking care of that, I can work on finding that spell. Bast can go talk with Argog and check the grounds and Nagi could cover the forest since he would also be able to hunt and be less noticeable." Harry finished the thought Myrtle had been on. He looked at the girl who nodded. That had been exactly what she had been thinking. So, it was decided, and they finished the final points before sending Harry on his way back through the passage, so he could go back to bed. With that done, Nagi disappeared out onto the grounds, so he could hunt as well as keep an eye on things, Bast quickly disappearing into the forest with him as the moon was blocked with clouds, making it dark. And Myrtle willed herself invisible, as all ghosts could do, and started her process of checking passage ways, halls and rooms.

They kept at their jobs for the week, trying hard to figure out what was happening in their home. Harry was also having to keep up with his work. it was two weeks in to February. He got dressed and when his dad came to pick him and the rest of the Slytherins up for breakfast, the man seemed angry and sick and he wanted to know why. "Dad, what's wrong? Are you okay? You have slept at some point in the past week, right?" he asked as soon as he got his voice back from seeing how awful he looked. Severus gave his son a reassuring look.

"Yes, Harry, I'm fine. You'll understand once you get out of the dungeons. At least I was able to save them." he answered tightly. "Let us go." with that, he led a group of nervous Slytherins through the dungeons and into the entrance hall. As soon as they got there, a collective gasp of horror and disgust rose from the house of snakes.

"D-dad?" Harry asked in disbelief and slight fear, while others in the house called out for their professor and head of house. All were begging him silently to tell them this wasn't real. Begging him to tell them this was just a night mare. The entrance hall was covered in pink, red, and white ribbons, streamers, flowers, and hearts. Merlin, there was even white mistle-toe. "That's not even part of this...holiday." some said weakly. If any of the other houses or teachers had been present, they would have witnessed the very rare break in character for the Slytherin house.

"Snakes, we are a proud house. We will not be seen weak in the face of this...development. Remember your masks. Put them up and don't show how truly disturbed you are at this display." Severus told his house. And so, the Slytherins slipped their emotionless mask on, despite the difficulty. Before they entered the great hall where the rest of the school no doubt was, Marcus spoke up.

"Professor, who?" he asked.

"Gilderoy Lockhart." Severus snarled. The rest of his house felt their lips curl at the name.

"He shall pay." Gemma Farley said scathingly. The others nodded.

"I just hope it doesn't get worse." an older year murmured. The others could only hope so. With that, the Slytherins entered the hall calm and poised, even if their masks almost cracked again at the sight of the hall. They could tell the other houses were disgusted and disliking of the decorations that took up the hall, even a couple of the Gryffindors looked nauseous. There were even more pink and red ribbons in here. They were everywhere, on the tables, hearts of different colors just fell from the ceiling, though the sunny sky was showing. Some could swear the clouds were shaped like hearts. The candles all had hearts as well. Ribbons and bows were everywhere. It was blindingly bright and mentally scaring. They could see Lockhart in his bright lilac robes. The rest of the school saw that the Slytherins and felt envious that they couldn't be unaffected by this themselves. If only they knew that many were considering scourgifying their eyes and wiping their memories. Except Harry, he had a plan for his memories of this.

They were all eating when Lockhart stood up. "Good morning students! It has been decided that we needed a moral boost so today, I have given it. Ah Valentine's Day. The day of love." he said with a grin, his teeth sparking. "I'd like to tell you all to go through the day with smiles and joy on your minds. Ah love, I'm sure my colleagues agree. I bet Filius would be willing to tell you about some of the charms out there dedicated to love." Prof. Flitwick hid his face in his hands. "And I'm sure if you asked Severus Snape here nicely enough, he'd brew you up a nice love potion." he said jovially. Snape's face darkened, and was warning enough to everyone to not come up to him for a love potion. Harry felt like he could have some fun with that.

"Also, I have decided to hire some cupids!" Lockhart said gleefully. The entire school, save Dumbledore froze as the doors slammed opened. In came what looked like ugly babies, but with grown man faces, in diapers and wings with arrows. "They will take your valentines, and deliver them to the one you want in a song." he said happily. "Also, I would like to thank the 25 of you who have sent me a valentine so far." he added. They could see multiple girls in Gryffindor from different years blush and squeal. They all shook their heads.

"How can someone send him a valentine?" Flint asked, shocked.

Harry sighed. "The man is a fraud, no doubt. And an idiot. And he's also an ass." he mumbled, having his closest house members' attention. "Unfortunately, he is handsome." Harry conceded, eating his food, eyes closed so he wouldn't have to see the awful decorations. He didn't realize the shocked looks he was receiving from his house mates that could hear him. "If he wasn't such an ass that was such an idiot, and he was teaching us and was good at it, I'd probably have a huge crush on him too." His green eyes opened, still on his plate. "But I can see through him, and he is complete idiot. Therefore, it'll never happen." he looked up to see his houses faces. "Your masks, remember?" he said, brow raised in question. Quickly their masks were back in place, though the only ones who hadn't noticed were the Gryffindor house, the Potters, and Dumbledore. Severus was curious as well as the other houses and their heads. What could have that reaction out of the Slytherin older years?

Severus had other things on his mind though and silently, un suspiciously, cursed Lockhart. It wouldn't happen now, but the effects would continue throughout the day. The second year Slytherins and Ravenclaws were lead to history by Flitwick once breakfast was over. Immediately Theo and Hermione claimed Blaise and Draco as partners and dragged them towards the back. And seeing how those four got the last spots in the back, Harry, confused by the behavior of his friends and the annoyance at not having one of his partners for the class, he sat up front on his own.

"Hermione, Theo? What's up?" Blaise asked, confused.

"What happened at breakfast?" Theo asked impatiently.

"What do you mean?" Draco asked, completely lost at their friends. Poor Harry was probably even more confused than them. Unless he wasn't. Hade usually knew what was up with his friends always.

"We all saw it. You guys looked shocked or something. And so, did those older boys that had been next to you." Hermione answered. Realization crossed the boys' features.

"Oh. That." quietly, the Slytherin boys told their Ravenclaw friends what happened. None of them noticing the Ravenclaw and Slytherin second year girls trying to ease drop. It didn't work well, all they heard was Harry, crush, and handsome.

The Ravenclaw and Slytherin girls quickly put their heads together as second year Slytherin and ravenclaw boys tried to eaves drop. Binns had no clue that Harry was the only student paying attention to his lesson that day. An actual lesson not focused on the Goblin Rebellions for once all year, but the history of an island that was home of only witches and wizards who died from a revolution.

"Did you hear that? Harry has a crush on a boy!" one ravenclaw girl said excitedly. Then again, they were excited to discover someone had a crush, let alone a smart boy like Harry who was top of his class.

"But who?" a different ravenclaw girl had to wonder.

"Obviously one of the boys he's friends with." Pansy muttered in annoyance.

"You think?" Millicent said with sarcasm. That much was obvious.

"Then it's probably Draco, Blaise, Theo, or Neville." Greg muttered quietly, him and Vincent getting into the conversation. Harry was focused solely on Binns, answering questions and asking them.

Theo, Blaise, Hermione, and Draco were still talking to themselves about school and Lockhart's idioticness. They had no idea of the fascinating subject of the class today. "I still don't get why Lockhart is such an idiot, yet is unusually focused on trying to get Harry detention or something." Theo was saying.

"Because he worships Liam and Liam hates Harry." Blaise answered easily.

"That's all for today class." Binns was saying, grabbing the students attention. "I want a three-foot essay on The Sanctum Island Revolution. It needs to have at least three items we discussed that aren't mentioned in the books. Have a good day." Binns disappeared into the wall leaving a shocked and upset class behind.

"What was class about?" several students cried in alarm. Mostly Ravenclaws.

"The Sanctum Island Revolution! It was bloody brilliant!" Harry said excitedly. Then he scowled at his friends, upon realizing that they had zero notes. "You didn't pay attention?" he asked. They morosely shook their heads. "Then you'll need to ask Prof Binns yourself. I'm not giving you notes after you left me. Not that I'm upset now, but you should have paid attention." Harry told his friends.

"Sorry." they replied. After watching the drama, the Ravenclaws ran off to intercept their Hufflepuff friends who would have class with Harry next. Daphne and Neville were going to meet up with their friends, though raised their eyebrows at the second year Ravenclaws running pass. They winced when a couple of cupids appeared and tackled some Ravenclaws and a couple Slytherins to the ground, starting to sing off key.

Soon the remaining Slytherins and Ravenclaws ran into the Hufflepuffs. Quickly they explained what they had heard, not paying attention to the first year Gryffindors that passed them by, who slowed so they could over hear. "Harry has a crush on Longbottom, Knott, Zambini, or Malfoy." the Ravenclaws gasped out. The Hufflepuffs were surprised. Then Justin shocked all of them with his next comment.

"I put three galleons on Malfoy." he said.

"Nope. I put 20 sickles on Knott." Hannah said.

"I put a galleon on Zambini." Susan said honestly.

"Nah, I put four galleons on Longbottom." Greg surprised them as he added in his thoughts.

"All right, I'll be Solicitor." Pansy said with a large, evil grin. She took out some parchment and her quill. Soon she was having amount betters on who they believed innocent little Harry had a crush on. A few more names were added to the list including Cedric, the Weasley twins, and Lee. A first year Gryffindor thought Liam and got hexed into silence for their idioticness. It was obviously not him. This all took barely ten of the 15 minutes before their classes were to begin, as there were only a few of them now of all the deciders. That was when a worn-out group of Harry, Theo, Neville, Draco, Blaise, Daphne, and Hermione showed up as the group had dispersed and Pansy had put the parchment away.

" I wonder what's gotten into everybody?" Hermione wondered at the large crowd that had disappeared. Harry knew though. He had good hearing when he was paying attention, and he was a little giddy.

"Who knows. Maybe the Valentine spirit has just gotten to them." he said with a small laugh. He was going to perform a school wide prank for this. 'They should really not jump to conclusions, and ask before they make bets.' he thought as they finally arrived at charms. The group bid good bye to their Ravenclaw friends and soon Hufflepuffs and Slytherins were entering charms.

On the other side of the school, Lee and the twins were on a free period. They were just passing a group of first years when they heard it. "Really! Harry has a crush on either Neville, Theo, Draco, or Blaise. Some people have even added Cedric, the twins, and Lee. It's going all around school." a first year, Gryffindor girl squealed to the three boys and two girls, all first years from other houses.

"OI!" the Gryffindor trio called, going up to the first years, who now looked petrified.

"Tell us _EVERYTHING_ you know." Lee began. "Or I won't hold those two back from pranking you." he ordered. Quickly, the first years answered their questions before running off. Fred, George, and Lee were quiet and still for many long moments as they thought about what they had just heard. Finally, George snapped out of it.

"I believe we need to find our little snake and find this out from him." he told his twin and their friend. The other two nodded and went off, preparing full well to wait outside the charms classroom until their class was over. Blasting away cupids from them if they got too close for comfort.

In the charms classroom, Harry was seated next to Neville. Daphne was in the back with Blaise and Draco, learning the story as they practiced a charm that created colored bubbles from their wands. Which was turning out to be more difficult than they had assumed. When they got that, they were taught a colored smoke charm. The Slytherin and Hufflepuffs keeping a close eye on their new gossip topic. It had taken most of the class time but soon everyone had the charms either mastered, or close to it. It was when there was only 15 minutes left of his class that Harry raised his hand, while silently apologizing for what he was about to do. But he had these pranks planned since breakfast.

"Yes Harry?" Flitwick asked curiously. Though he was also cautious. Severus's son had quite a mischievous streak in him.

"P-professor Flitwick, can you tell us some of the charms that can be used to help with confessions or to help reveal your feelings for someone?" Harry asked, a blush heavy on his cheeks. Flitwick spluttered and coughed in shock at this. No one noticing the twins and Lee enter through the door, having heard Harry through the door.

"M-Mr. Snape?" he asked, wanting to have a repeat of the request. Was this seriously happening with him? From Snape's son no less. Harry softly repeated the request, blushing even heavier. It was purely his prankster in him that was keeping him from backing out. "W-well, umm…... There's a charm that will make a banquette of roses, or your choice, of flower to appear." He said uncomfortably.

"Really, can you show us?" Harry pleaded, Neville was quietly laughing behind his hands. Flitwick sighed and silently did so. It was awing to students as a banquette of blue and bronze colored roses appeared. "We can control the color of the flowers?" Harry asked in awe. Flitwick nodded. "Are there any others?" he asked excitedly.

"Well, there is a charm that, if done properly can send colored hearts from out of your wand. In fact, why don't you try it class, just focus on heart shapes instead of bubbles." he said. It was rather easy and soon the class room had colored hearts of yellow, black, green, and silver in the air. "Good job class." Flitwick said, having hoped Harry would forget his line of questioning since there was but a few minutes left of the class. Harry raised his hand. "Yes Harry?" Flitwick asked, expecting...he didn't know what, but he was expecting something.

"Is there a charm that can reveal if someone is pregnant and what gender the baby or babies are?" Harry asked, purely innocent. Flitwick turned five shades of red before squeaking out his reply.

"THAT IS A QUESTION FOR YOUR FATHER!" he squeaked in embarrassment. "Now out! Class is dismissed. No homework." with that, he was about to leave until a cupid broke into the room, chasing the poor professor who scurried very quickly to his office. The cupid got in as the students ran off. Most them laughing.

Before Harry's friends could question him on his actions the twins and Lee appeared. "We'll be taking our little snake for a few moments." Fred said.

"See you at lunch!" Harry, George, and Lee called out. Once they were secluded, though safe from prying ears and in the line of sight of the monitor Filch, the Gryffindor trio grilled Harry for questions on his behavior and the poll going around. Harry happily told his fellow pranksters his plans for the day. After laughing their heads off for a while, the trio finally agreed to join him on his plans.

"Making trouble, boys?" a voice asked in amusement. They smiled at the person, telling them the truth. The person laughed and agreed to keep it a secret as Filch came towards them and lead them to the great hall for lunch.

Harry said good bye to his friends for now and joined Draco and the others at the Ravenclaw table. The hall had broken out in whispers when Harry had entered the hall with Lee and the twins. Harry and the others were at the end of the table. He had Theo and Neville on either side of him, the others were gathered around. "Any ideas on the whispering and stuff going around?" Daphne asked, noticing it, and getting annoyed.

"Nope. When I tried to ask, they just said 'Good Luck!' then ran off." Draco muttered.

"Huh, when I tried to ask, they just said 'It's Neville, give up.' before running off." Blaise answered. The others just shook their heads, including Harry. Though he couldn't believe this was going around so much. Oh well.

"Hey, have you any idea where Lockhart is?" Harry asked, noticing the absence of the fraud DADA professor.

"From what I heard, he's been in the lavatory on the fifth floor for an hour. Locked the doors. Something about hair and teeth." Hermione said. The group finished their lunch before joining the Gryffindors and Severus to go down to potions. Once inside everyone found a partner, Harry was with Draco and Blaise at their station. Today they were doing a review paper on the potions they had done so far that year.

They had a little bit before the bell rang when Harry decided to start the next part of his day. He raised his hand, getting his dads' attention. "Yes Harry?" he asked, not prepared for what came next.

"I asked Prof. Flitwick, but he said I needed to ask you. Is there a spell or potion that can reveal if you're pregnant? Can it tell you what gender and how many you're going to have?" he asked pure innocence in his voice. Everyone felt the temperature drop about 50 degrees and felt part of their potions professor's magic starting to whip out. They shivered.

"Yes, there is. But you have no need to know the name of it." he added when Harry went on to open his mouth to ask. "Are there any other questions?" he asked the class, his tone of voice, which was steely and cold, told them there better not be. Harry raised his hand, but asked before his dad could call on him.

"Oh! What are the ingredients for Amortentia?" he asked.

"Why would you want to know?" Severus grit out smoothly. Harry blushed. "Second years are too young. Third fourth and fifth years are also too young to know. I will not hear of this again Harry. If this is a weird, roundabout way to ease me into allowing you to date, you have another five years before it is even considered a possibility." he finished. Harry turned bright red in embarrassment. The bell rang and Severus gave a relieved sigh. "Come along children, I will take you to your Herbology class." he scowled, leading the students from the school building and to the green houses. Once there, he looked to Pomona. "All yours Pomona." he grit out, still peeved at his son's questions. He briskly turned and headed back to the school. Soon he was out of sight. Prof. Sprout let out a slow whistle.

"I've never seen that man as peeved as that unless it was at Dumbledore." she muttered, looking at the Slytherins and Gryffindors as the Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs joined them. "What happened?" she asked the class.

"I just asked if there was a spell or potion that could tell if you were pregnant and if it revealed the gender and number. And I asked him for the ingredients for Armortentia." Harry said, his next part of the day about to be revealed. Professor Sprout laughed in amusement.

"I see. Into the green houses!" she ordered. Soon they were all in and paired off. That day they were just going to care for some Leaping Toadstools. As they were small and young now, they couldn't get too high, or too far. It was an enjoyable lesson. They were done with five minutes to spare when Harry raised his hand, getting Prof. Sprouts attention. "Yes Mr. Snape?" she asked.

"Professor Sprout, how would you go about to confessing to someone? Are there any specific plants you would use? Would you do it towards evening or closer to the morning?" he asked. Professor Sprout looked thoughtful. She was probably the only one who could guess what was happening.

"Well, I'd make a confession closer to the night or evening. In person of course. I wouldn't want to use a valentine card or cupid." just as Sprout said this, a cupid burst through the door, only to be shot back by a spell from the professors wand. "Also, I wouldn't use flowers, what if the other person is allergic and just hadn't known?"

"So, if I had a c-confession to make, you'd suggest in person, at dinner maybe?" Harry asked, blushing. Sprout nodded.

"Exactly. Make it as well known and public as possible. You're too cute to be told no. So, by making it public, others will know who's off the market and to not attempt anything with." she said with a wink. It was then that the bell was heard. "Alright, let's get up there and get everyone cleaned up so we can have a...fun dinner." Everyone talked amiably with each other, though quietly away from Harry and his friends. It quickly got through the school in the few minutes they got inside the castle.

As they were going to clean up, whoever they came across, the seconds years whispered to another student, 'He's confessing at dinner!' Soon everyone at Hogwarts was in the great hall for dinner. Looking towards Harry and gossiping with their table mates. Draco and the others were so confused, not understanding Harry's behavior that day. It was part way through dinner when a cupid appeared. They were curious as to who it was going to, but it had gotten around Harry wasn't confessing with a cupid, so they weren't as curious.

The cupid immediately found its way to Liam. It opened his mouth and scratchily sang out:

"You are smart, strong, and Handsome.

I give you my hand, my dear wonderful Liam

My Valentine, my forevermore.

The great defeater of the Dark Lord."

The cupid finished. Ginny was blushing and looking at Liam with large eyes, making it obvious who the valentine was from. The twins were embarrassed and disgusted. "That rubbish came from a member of our family. Oh, the shame!" the twins cried horrified. It was surprising that they weren't even acting. They were genuinely disgusted and horrified by it. Everyone burst out in talk about the new development.

Severus stood and silenced the students with just a look and sneer. "Now, are there any more confessions that need to be made?" he asked, his tone adding quietly 'There better not be.' The entire student body gasped as Harry stood, a large blush on his face, a look like he couldn't believe he was going to do this. Severus snarled. "Harry Hadrian Snape, sit down. I said no dating until Seventh year. You can confess then...maybe." he growled as Harry was now in between the Slytherin and Gryffindor tables.

"But Dad, they'll be graduated then." Harry answered, pleading in his voice and on his face. Severus paled as the students gasped once more.

"Th-them?! Who is them?" he spluttered. Harry blushed once more, not answering. "Who are you confessing too!?" Severus growled, impatience at his son's behavior.

"Fred, Lee, and George!" Harry shouted, eyes closed at the action. His eyes flew open and he gasped, a hand coming to his mouth as he blushed. The student body was shocked into silence, before the twins and Lee approached Harry.

"Us too Harry." George said, all three blushing.

"For a long time." Lee added.

"W-we were going to propose after dinner." Fred said, all three blushing. Harry had a large blush on his face and small tears clinging to his lashes. Everyone was snapped out of their shock when Severus's wand was in his hand.

McGonagall was shocked. "SEVERUS?! You can't hex your students!" McGonagall cried.

"Then at this moment I am not a teacher Minerva, but a father who is pissed!" Severus snarled at the woman, causing her to flinch. They were all knocked out of their stupor as laughter sounded. Looking around they found it coming from the four who had caused the scene, as well as Sprout who had learned all about their plans.

"Oh, Merlin this is pure gold." Lee cried.

"We will need to top this on April Fool's Day. Somehow." Harry gasped out. The four of them were clutching onto each other. Despite his confusion, Severus was still pissed and snarled at them to stop touching his son.

"Happy Valentine's Day!" the four called out.

"We heard about the schools' poll that was going on." Fred explained.

"We asked Harry personally about it. He told us he was going to prank the school, as a lesson for just spreading rumors instead of just going to him." George added.

"It's true. Prof. Sprout over-heard our conversation and she promised to keep it a secret. So, just to make it clear to everybody. I'm 12. I'm not interested in romance of any kind right now. Maybe it'll change in a year or so. But I'm not interested in any one to be a boyfriend or girlfriend yet." he told the shocked school. Severus could admit that he was relieved about that. But he was also still pissed all the way to hell and back.

"You're grounded Harry. I forbid any interaction with those three pests. Said pests are to have a detention for the rest of the school year with me." he ground out, still pissed but finding the shock on the three pests faces amusing. Though he'd admit silently to the guilt he felt when he saw the hurt on his son's face.

Dumbledore finally made his presence known. "Now Severus, it was just a harmless prank." he told the furious teacher.

"Harmless Albus? Harmless my arse! I have had at least half of what time I had left shaved off." he snarled at the man, his wand back in his sleeve. "I've decided that Messers Lee, Fred, and George are a bad influence on my son. And I have every right to forbid contact between them and my son."

Finally Sprout finally got to talking. "Severus Snape, you can't deprive you son of his friends. That's cruel, even for you. And he only got off his last grounding barely two weeks ago. You've deprived him of his friends plenty, don't you think? Give him his fun, if his life's not in danger." she scolded the man. Severus was quiet, thinking this through.

McGonagall, spoke up once more. "It was amusing to see your expression just now." she added in.

"You should've seen it when I asked him about the ingredients for a love potion in class today." Harry added softly to the Gryffindor Head of house. The teachers envisioned it for a moment before they broke into laughter, as did some of the older students who knew him long enough to know what face he would have made.

"Very well you stubborn woman." he growled. "We are talking though, Harry," he told the boy who nodded, relieved. The rest of dinner passed with-out incident. Turns out, Severus was giving his son the talk. As revenge for the prank. Harry fitfully went to bed. Horrified at such a repercussion as he had received.

It was dark as Bast slithered his way to Argog's nest. The acromantula had disappeared deeply into the forest, more than he had been prepared for. He slithered into the nest, the acromantula's children tensing, but sensing Harry on him. Bast made himself smaller, to allow himself to seem like less of a threat. He also had his protective eyelids on, to not kill any of them "I was expecting you sooner, to be honest." Argog admitted.

"Sorry about that, great one. But I am here now." Bast tilted his head. "What can you tell me about the danger we are facing?" the old spider let out a sigh.

"I will relay it to you as I know it." he said. "On many a night, though it has lessened, a very tangible dark magic has entered our forest. I do not know what it looks like, only that is in the form of a male student. Whenever one of my children get closer, it either vanishes, or kills who ever has discovered him." Aragog answered.

"Thank you, great one. May your hunts be fruitful." Bast said.

"To you as well oh King of Snakes." Aragog said as the basilisk disappeared from the nest. On his way back, he had regrown some of his height to get more comfortable. He ran into Nagi at the entrance of the forest, where both were planning to shrink down to be less noticeable.

"What did you find out, healer?" Bast asked.

 _'I've found traces of evil in the forest, but am unable to track it properly.'_ Nagi answered ' _And you, oh king?'_

Bast relayed what he knew. "This is rather troublesome." Bast said after the silence.

 _'I'm afraid so. Did you hunt?'_ Nagi asked. Bast nodded _. 'Then let us get back to the castle. I'm worried for my snakling, and the other students.'_ Nagi said. Bast nodded, shrank, and the two great snakes disappeared into the grass, the castle their next objective. Thankfully, the last bit of February passed without incident.

A/N: Please review and let me know what you think.


	9. Chapter 9

A/N: Here's the next chapter of Chamber of Secrets. Hope you enjoy and don't forget to review

Chapter 9: March

The shcool buzzed excitedly as the Hufflepuff vs. Ravenclaw quidditch game dawned on them. Harry and the group wished their friends from both houses good luck before going to the quidditch field. They all cheered Daphne, Cedric, and Theo on. Cheering on the teams. Their group had a banner that flashed the words 'GOOD LUCK! AVOID THE BLUDGERS!" between the two houses' colors. The match was intense, as both sides sought to prove themselves. In the end, Ravenclaw won by only 20 points. Lee, announcer of the games officially, congradulated both teams on a game well played, telling them they should all be proud of themselves. It was only reinforced with their houses and the slytherin house cheering them and repeating what Lee said, heartfully. It was a great way to boost the school's moral. It was a great way to begin the new month.

The school was going into their second week of March and the Slytherins and Gryffindors were going into potions. It was on this particular day that they were working on a girder potion. "Remember, be precise. We don't want any one to blow up their cauldrons." Severus told the class, eyes immediately falling on Liam and Ron. What was the most different was that Liam and Ron were sitting across the aisle from Harry and Blaise, who he was working with that day, since he had worked with Draco the last potions class. Things were going well, until about half-way through class. Harry was helping Blaise with his potion while his own was supposed to simmer. He was in the middle of the explanation with the third clockwise stir when he stalled, ears twitching when he heard the tell-tale sound of something flying through the air. He whipped around in alarm as everyone started to understand that something was up. His eyes widened as a small dragon scale, not even apart of the ingrediants for the potion was about to touch the potion.

'Oh No!' Harry thought, knowing the only reaction that would take place would be, considering it was such an explosive ingrediant. Harry didn't even think before he cried the first spell that came to mind. "Protego!" he cried, voice frantic as he threw his arms out. Everyone gasped at the bright white light that shot out from Harry, protecting all the occupants of the classroom, even Liam and the other Gryffindors. The entire school could hear the explosion, Hogwarts also doing her part to protect the students.

When the light from the explosion died, and Severus quickly vanished the smoke, just as several of the staff, Dumbledore, the Potters, Pomfrey, and Minerva entered, everyone witnessed as the bright light sunk back into Harry before the boy collapsed. "Harry!" several voices cried, rushing to the boy.

The last thing Harry had felt was a familiar magic he recognized to be Tom's from both the scar and diary he kept on him, as well as his, dissipate from his body. He felt extreme exhaustion, and nothing more as blackness cloaked his vision. When he finally came too, it was to voices.

"Severus, you're being too rash." a voice, Lilly Potter, by the sounds of it, insisted.

"It is Prof. Snape, Prof. Potter!" another voice hissed. "And I am not being too rash. Your imbecile of a son threw a well known, volatile ingrediant into my son's cauldron. One that was not on the list! Purposely! So apparently you failed to teach him to read and follow instructions, because I had it written clearly on the board. And you failed epicly about teaching him the value of lives...other than his own. My son has been in a magical coma for three days, because he exhausted his magic casting a high level spell to protect several others. Including your son, the culprit!" Severus snarled.

"You don't know that it was my Liam!" Lily cried.

"There are several witnesses from both Slytherin and Gryffindor that have confirmed it. Or does your thick skull need to see the memories again?" the potions master growled.

"Snivellus-" James Potter began.

"Close your mouth you arrogant trash! Your son has constantly harrassed mine, with no reason except that he got a little attention during their first bloody year because everyone was more surprised to see my son, rather than your precious boy who lived! I am tired of your bloody excuses! Your son is just as bad to mine, as your sister was to you growing up! I will not allow this to go unpunished. Liam Potter is the one at fault here, Potter. I will take this to the DMLE, strait to Madam Bones! Not even Dumbledore will be able to help you in this matter! I swear Potter, if your spawn comes near my son again, I will be forced to move my hand. I will take you to court and I will sue you for everything you have and are, if you don't put a bloody leash on the thing you call a son." Severus snarled.

"Severus my boy-" Dumbledore began.

"NO Headmaster! I have allowed you to get away with a lot of bull that you have pulled against me! But I will not allow you to cover up the harm your BWL has caused against my son, who has done NOTHING to deserve it. Truth of the matter is, the house of Potter, it's Lord, it's Lady, and it's damnable Heir, owe my son a life debt, as do many other families that were in that class." Severus snarled, before continuing in an icy voice, that reminded those in the room just who they were dealing with. A hardened spy who survived. Who would protect the only family he had. "I demand that Liam Potter be removed from my class, he has proven a danger to his fellow students. If you want that thing to learn potions, than have some one else do it. I'm sure that there are many mediocres out there who would love to tutor your...son. It is my right to demand this Albus. I will not take no for an answer. If Liam Potter continues to harrass my son, comes near my son, comes into my class room while I have a class present, I will take this to court, and I can guarentee that you will all be dragged through the mud. Do not test me." Severus seethed. "And Liam will be having a detention split between me, Filch, Pamona, Flitwick, and McGonagall for the rest of the year and until winter break of next year, if he still doesn't believe he has done wrong." Severus said, voice steely.

Before any of them could reply, they heard a weak voice come from the bed. "D-dad." Harry called hesitantly. Severus was by his side in an instant.

"I'm here son. How are you feeling?" Severus immediately asked, Poppy coming over to him aswell, to check on the young boy who was still learning healing spells from her.

"I'm tired, and sore. And my magic feels a little...light." he admitted.

"You used alot of magic, protecting everyone. Even with my self and Hogwarts providing protection aswell, the explosion was massive, and it drained alot of magic from the three of us, you especially, since you were the closest source of magic." Severus explained. Harry nodded.

"It was Liam behind the sabotage?" Harry asked, remembering the words his father said. 'Witnesses from both Slytherin and Gryffindor.' Severus nodded once more. "Dad, I don't want any Potter near me again. They have all tried to make my life miserable, and I am sick of Liam harrassing me all the time. It's gotten to where he is purposely seeking me out now, and I am sick of my friends almost getting hurt because of his petty jealousness, and need for attention." Harry said to his father.

"It's being delt with. If the reasonable demands aren't met, we will take it to Amelia and to court." Severus assured his son. "Your friends and house mates, as well as most of the school are worried about you, and the parents of many of the children in the class room would like to meet with you to thank you for saving their children's lives, as the damage would be irreversable, and would most have likely ended in death for many of the students, especially Messers Weasley, Potter, Zambini, and yourself- as you four were closest to the cauldron." Harry nodded.

"I'd like to leave the infirmary if you could allow it Madam Pomfrey." Harry told the medi-witch who had been casting diagnostic spells.

"Very well, Mr. Snape." Poppy said. "I want you to take this pepper up potion and than a level five magic healing potion." Poppy said, surprising eveyone in the room. Level Five potions were only meant for extreme cases.

"Are you sure Poppy?" Severus asked in alarm. He was expecting a level 3 potion. Level 5 would have been for cases like Tom or Dumbledore.

"Yes, Severus. Your son has an extremely large magical core that hasn't even reached full maturity yet. He pulled magic from Hogwarts herself to help keep the barrier strong during the explosion, and to keep the castle from collapsing on everyone as well. That took up most of his magic." Poppy explained. Severus relunctantly nodded as Harry took the potions. "You're going to be right as rain in a day or so Mr. Snape. Now lunch is being held if you would like me and Severus to lead you down."

"And we will spend the evening tonight to talk with the parents and the children you helped to save." Severus added. Harry nodded before groaning. "What is it?" Severus asked in concern.

"Everyone's probably worried, and I'll never have any privacy gain! AND I missed three days of school! My schedule has been completly thrown out of wack! I'm probably super behind in my school work! Oh Merlin, I missed the test in charms and history too! I was looking forward to it. And all of the study time gone!" Harry cried, hyperventalating. Atleast last year it was after finals that he was in the infarmary for three days. This was still the middle of the year!

"Are you sure your son shouldn't have been in Ravenclaw Sev?" Poppy asked, forcing a calming drought down Harry's throat. She only had to do this with last year Ravenclaws and Slytherins during finals, never a second year during the middle of the year.

"The hat said I could have done well in Ravenclaw as well." Harry answered for his dad, calmed down now. "Can we go now? I have a lot of catching up to do, with both school work and my friends. And Nagi's probably freaked out along with Myrtle." Harry said.

"Yes son, we can go down to lunch now." Severus said, turning Harry's hosptial gown back into a clean uniform. Severus looked back at Albus and the Potters when they reached the door. "Remember my demands, I expect them to be met." he growled, before following his son and the medic witch out of the infirmary.

When the trio entered the Great Hall, students started whispering. Before they could get too far into the hall, the gryffindor second year students, save Liam and Ron, walked over to the trio before looking at Harry. It was a surprise that Dean came forward. "Harry, thank you for saving me and my fellow Gryffindors in that potions class three days ago. Even when it put you in so much danger. IF we can do any thing, we will try out best to do so." he told the boy.

Harry nodded. "You're welcome. I was just doing what came naturally." Harry replied, letting them know he accepted their thanks. It lasted for a while as the Fred, George, and Percy also came over to them.

"Harry, you're okay!" the trio said in relief.

"Thank you, for saving our idiot of a brother." Percy told Harry, the others surprised that Percy, of all of them, would be the first to call his baby brother an idiot.

"It's not a problem, really. It was just instinct." he assured them. He let out a surprised eep as the three Weasleys hugged him.

"HARRY!" several voices called out. It wass his friends. The Weasley trio left Harry to his friends. Harry was never going to have any privacy ever again. The group dragged him over to the Slytherin table where he was applauded by his house and the others. Harry blushed under all of the student body's praise.

"Alright Hade, you've missed multiple meals, so you need to fill your plate and eat all of it." Draco ordered.

"You can be allowed to take your test this afternoon, since you're free, Harry." Hermione said.

"Let's go over everything while we're at it." Theo added, taking out books. Harry smiled at his friends and got to work on eating, studying, listening to thanks from the older siblings of second years, and answering all the questions sent his way about his health. It was a hell of an end of a week. Especially after meeting with adults who were giving him thanks. He got to see Uncle Lucius and Aunt Narcissa, so it was okay.

As the month continued, Harry wound up having a friend with him at all times. Despite the magic replenisher potion, he was still easily tired and his magic wasn't fully to par quite yet. The Potters were staying away from Harry as Severus demanded. Their reputation couldn't afford a law suit against them. Albus was also staying away from Severus and his son, but he was growing suspicious of Harry, once more. 'How strong is this boy? Who were his birth parents? Severus adopted him, which was a surprise, so it's not through him, though if he did a blood adoption, that could explain some things.' Albus thought one night as he sat in his office, Fawkes had made it a habit to be around the man, so he could make sure nothing bad was going to be directed at Harry Snape. And Fawkes wasn't a fan of the direction this line of thought was going. 'I'll keep a closer eye on him. After last year, and now the events of this year, I wonder if I'm missing something important.' he mused, sucking on another lemon drop.

It was late as Harry finally, and tiredly made his way into Myrtle's bathroom with Nagi where he would meet up with the ghost and Bast. Hogwart was providing him a short passage that lead directly to the bathroom.

"Are you okay Harry?" Bast asked, having been un-able to get to the boy sooner.

"Yah. I'm still tired and my magic's still a bit weak, but I'm fine. Promise." he assured them. "So, what do we know about what's going on here?" He asked, changing the subject.

"There's a first year Slytherin going around at night. Inside and outside the castle." Myrtle answered first.

"Who?"

"It's Ichiro Jermi. The one who was there the night the other boy in Slytherin got petrified." she answered.

"That makes since. According to Aaragog, a great evil in the form of a student is wondering in the forest, killing his young if they get too close." Bast answered.

 _"So we need to keep an eye on this boy."_ Nagi agreed, Harry translating for Myrtle. It was agreed on, and the spirit and baskilisk sent Harry to bed, Nagi staying attatched to his wrist as he had been since the dueling club. Once in bed, Harry took out the diary.

/You there Tom?/ Harry wrote.

\Of course, what happened? You were losing magic quickly.\ Tom's neat script replied. Harry slapped himself in the face. He had forgotten to inform the Horcrux. Quickly, Harry wrote down the events of the past week or so. Tom was pissed off in the end. \He dared to attack you?! He will feel my wrath so help me Merlin!\ Tom seethed, normally neat script sloppy in his anger and rage.

/Tom I'm fine! Really. I'm okay and he's not allowed to come near me or dad's taking him to court with the DMLE. With Amelia Bones, who is the fairest of the judges./ Harry wrote back, successful in calming the raging soul piece down.

\Very well, though if you could find that spell for me soon, I might be able to mysteriously injure the boy who lived. I could probably get Bast to petrify the boy since he's being framed any ways.\ Tom wrote. Harry gave a soft laugh before replying.

/We'll find the spell, Tom. And we can't because that would insure that he be killed./ Harry replied.

\Fine.\ was Tom's only reply, and Harry could feel the petulence in the soul's writing. He snickered.

/Night Tom./

\Night Harry. Be careful.\

/Of course./ It was towards the end of the month, during a joint study session, that Harry found the spell they needed, He couldn't wait to let Tom and the others know. That night, he was able to cast the spell. They learned that the spell could work for three hours at a time, and took at least six hours to re-charge. And with some tweaking between Myrtle, Harry, and Tom, only those present could see the soul piece. They would get more done now.

It was on the last day of March, the last full school study session of the month. Harry sat with Lee and the twins, heads together in a secluded corner, as they worked on the final touches for their prank for school tomorrow. It was going to be epic. Harry couldn't help but feel sorry for the teachers tomorrow. It was only when the twins got called away by Oliver for some quidditch practice-overseen by Hooch- that Harry and Lee got to work on their plans for the twins' birthday tomorrow. The twins themselves forgot about their birthday every year, due to their love for it's holiday. Lee and Harry wouldn't forget, and were rather surprised when Percy joined them for their plans. To Percy, his twin brothers were jokesters, but none of the family, except maybe Ron and Ginny, would forget the importance of the day they came into their world, filling it with frustration and laughter. Tomorrow was going to be amazing.

A/N: Corrections have been made, thanks to S! Also, April is mostly done. Just doing some tweaks before sending it to S to check over. Should be up either this weekend or next. Until next time!


	10. Chapter 10

A/N: Here's the next chapter of Harry Hadrian Snape and the Chamber of Secrets. I tried to keep mistakes minimal and will repost any corrections once my Beta, S gets back to me. I'm sorry for the wait and thank every one who's been reading and reviewing for your patience. This chapter has humor in it and some fluff between Harry, the twins, and Lee. Well, I hope this chapter makes up for my lack of updates.

To my TMNT readers, I'm working on that other chapter. A new job is taking some time to get used to, but I hope to try and get it up, either this week or next. Thanks again every one and I hope you enjoy this chapter. R&R!

Chapter 10: April

It was breakfast, and the atmosphere was tensed and thrumming with nervous energy. Most of the teachers and older year students had their focus on a pair of twins sitting at the Gryffindor table. The other teachers were keeping their eyes on James Potter, his reputation from when he was in school preceeding him, despite his not having done anything such as that in many, many years. The students uneasily picked at their breakfasts, while the teachers didn't touch theirs. The oldest of the students couldn't help but feel sorry and envy for the unsuspecting younger year students, happily, but confusedly eating their breakfasts.

It was closer towards the end of the meal that the students jumped, startled by the owls arriving. Eyes were eyeing packages and envelopes dis-trustfully. Things were normal, as the owls disappeared out of the great hall, only for a new owl of red feathers swooped in, dropping a black orb in mid-air before dis-appearing out the great hall. The orb exploded in a sweep of black smoke. The students were panicked as the teachers tried to clear it away. It was only two minutes later that the hall cleared of the smoke.

Eyes looked around in confusion, nothing seeming to be out of the ordinary. Then their was a scream of out-rage and horror. Heads whipped towards the Gryffindor Table where the sound came from. All of the Gryffindors were wearing robes of silver and green. Looking around caused other gasps of surprise. Slytherins now sported yellow and black robes, Ravenclaws sported red and gold ones while the Hufflepuffs wore blue and bronze robes. While it was mostly the Gryffindors freaking out about the robe change, there were a few from other houses growling at their robe colors.

A didgusted cry from the teachers table caused heads to turn, expecting it to be the Potters or even Lockhart. Instead, it had been McGonagall and Dumbledore who had made the disgusted noises. Dumbledore, known for his love of brightly and strangely patterned robes, was now sporting a plain black robe with some accents of red, green, yellow, and blue on the hems and sleeves. It was so normal, people had to do a double take, to be sure it wasn't their imagination.

McGonagall also had them shocked. Her robes were a bright pink and purple color, and the disgust so pronounced on her face was more emotion than they had ever seen. Then there was Snape. Oh Merlin, some one was going to be killed. Severus who wore just black robes now sported red and gold on them. The look on his face was the most emotion any one had ever seen. If looks could kill, and they probably could with some spells, many of the students would be dead. As it was, many were close to fainting at his and McGonagalls looks of pure rage and fury.

Prof. Sprout was laughing, with no sense of self-perservation as she pointed at her fellow teachers in mirth. Her robes were blue and bronze, not that she minded. Flitwick, who was next to her, was trying to keep his giggles under control, his own robes were yellow and black. The Potters were glaring at their robes of green and silver, and Lockhart was currently fleeing the great hall, his brown robes with orange puff balls flying behind him. All over, students and teachers were trying to remove the spell on their clothing, eyes glancing up when a large eagle swooped in, dropping a howler that activated in mid-air. No one recognized the voice that came from it.

"To the staff and students of Hogwarts...April Fools Day has begun! There are pranks laying all over the castle, they can not be removed. The spell on your robes also, can not be removed. The effects of the spell and the traps will go away after curfew. Be careful around school, and enjoy the rest of your day!" the message ended and the howler erupted into a series of fire crackers.

The day continued full of tension and un-ease. Even the teachers were so paranoid that they could barely concentrait on their own lessons. Students were running around the school with brightly colored hair-Liam Potter was going around with bright pink hair- or animal parts, such as dog ears, elephant trunks, or even tails. A couple of rather unfortunate students, such as Ginny Weasley and Liam Potter had gotten their school robes switched. Liam embarrasingly ran around in the girls' uniform, keeping it covered with his detested Slytherin robes, and Ginny went around in the boys' uniform. No one was all surprised when Harry Snape's robes got magically replaced with the girls' uniform. After two years of cross-dressing for Halloween, he wasn't very bothered, though his father and Draco demanded he keep his robe over it to keep it hidden.

It was during a free hour that Harry, Lee, and the twins silently made their way to a secret passage the older trio had found years ago. Other students had already given the twins birthday wishes, leaving Lee and Harry as the only ones not to do so yet. "Happy Birthday!" they told the twins, showing the passage had been decorated with gold and silver balloons, and a beautiful cake. The cake was a double layer, chocolate and strawberry one that Harry had made from scratch.

"Thanks you guys." Fred and George told their pranking buddies and honestly, best firends.

"It's not a problem." Lee told them, while Harry opened up some butterbeers for the group. The group enjoyed their food before the twins were bestowed with gifts. Fred got some of the rarer needed ingrediants for some of their more complex potions, from Harry. He also got a new book from Lee for him and George to write down their new recipes and plans. George had obtained a new prank bag, filled with an almost endless supply of new prank gadgets from Harry, while Lee had gotten him a journal as well for his own ideas. The twins were also given small, velvet boxes from both of them.

"What's this?" Fred asked in awe, opening the box to find a beautiful, silver bracelet with a smooth sapphire hanging from it, with a clear raven symbol. George's was a silver bracelet aswell, only he had a smooth ruby on it with a clear fox symbol. They looked at their friends in confusion as the duo held up their wrists to show that they also possessed a bracelet each.

"We decided that since we are the next generation of Mauraders here at Hogwarts, we should have our own group name, and alises." Harry grinned. His bracelt was also silver, with a smooth emerald, and a gray snake symbol. Lee's was silver with a smooth topaz and a pale gray griffin on his.

"The gems, once we make a decision, will have our group's name and our alises on them." Lee explained excitedly.

"The animal charms represent something about you, and the color it turns will be determined on your magical nature, such as light, dark, gray-such as my self- and nuetral-such as Lee." Harry added.

"Each bracelets has a set of charms on them. One that allows only our group to see them. A charm that, when given the right word, will cast a strong disillusionment charm on the wearer. It also repels hexes and jinxes and will warm up if there's poison in your food. It will also go extremely cold if one of the others in the group are in danger. Like if they're hurt or in a tight spot. Like being caught by a teacher." Lee told them with a grin, finishing the explanation of the bracelets functions.

"This is amazing!" Fred said in amazement.

"You said the animal charm repesent something about us?" George began, wondering how to word his question.

"You're wondering why, if you're twins, you have different charms?" Harry asked, understanding the twins. The duo nodded.

"You guys are twins, and despite how alike the two of you are, you're also two seperate people, and it isn't fair to group you together as each other." Lee said.

"And while you do a good job at hiding how much it hurts and upsets you when your family get your names wrong, we still know how you really feel." Harry added, his voice soft and gentle. The twins took this all in, trying to hide the effect their friend's words had on them.

Their whole life, while they loved being twins, they were, as they put it, their own people. It hurt when their own family couldn't tell them apart. But here, with Harry and Lee, their absolute best friends, they felt accepted for themselves. The twins quickly changed subject, so they could keep the tears at bay. "So what do our animals represent about us?" George asked.

"Well, we noticed that while Fred loved to do the pranks, he happens to enjoy the creating of the potions, spells, and ideas more. And while you love making the potions, spells, and coming up with ideas, George, you enjoy the pranking more. So Fred got the Raven, for his love of the craft. And you got the fox, to represent your love of the execution of the craft." Harry and Lee explained. Neither of the boys expected to be tackled by the twins in a large group hug.

"Thank you." the twins said, voices soft and grateful. This. This right here, was all they had ever wanted. For someone to actually know them and who they were. The group of pranksters stayed in their hug for a long time, before they finally seperated. The twins put their bracelets on and were surprised when Fred's turned white, and George's turned black. After that shock wore off, they started discussing names for their group and their names in the group. After that was done, they came up with a plan to introduce their new group at dinner.

Dinner was a tense affair. Everyone was stressed out and tensed. When people noticed how tense the twins and James Potter were, they considered that they had nothing to do with today. Besides, both twins sported bright purple hair, cat ears, and George got caught in the uniform gender changing prank. As did James Potter and Lily Potter. Suddenly, all the lights went out, except for the candles, leaving the great hall in dim lighting. Students clung to each other in fear, teachers stood and raised their wands, out of pure instinct and paranoia.

"You have survived April Fools Day, Hogwarts! But that doesn't mean it's over." a strange voice filled the great hall. A couple of first and second, and even sixth years burst out into tears, including the Potters and Lockhart. "Today is the day that the new era of Mauraders will take over!" several teachers froze and paled, remembering the last group. "Allow us to introduce our selves! We are the 'Wayward Souls'!"

"Ying!"(Fred)

"Yang!"(George)

"Silph!"(Harry)

"Mythic!"(Lee)

"Together, we shall do our part in furthering the education of Hogwart's students! Together, we shall produce chaos, surprise, and the unexpected. So everyone, remain in constant vigillance and expect the unexpected!" with that, the light died out completely as several cracks were heard through out the dinning hall. When the lights slowly came on, every one was shocked to find that the tables were on the roof and the roof's charm for the ceiling was now on the floor, where students were standing and or floating. It was choas as the teachers were all stuck to walls. The head of houses were the first to break out of there binds and immediately, every one felt a flipping motion and things were normal once more. That night, everyone went to bed in shock and feeling ill. Thankfully, the next day was saturday, and they could all sleep in. No one noticed the Wayward Souls grin and mentally congradulate each other on jobs well done.

The rest of the month started out pretty simple. They pruned Abyssinian Figs and even learned the Point-Me charm, which was useful in locating misplaced school books, supplies, and even assignments. Or in a few first years cases, their pets. Things had fallen peaceful for a while, and then, towards the end of April, tradgedy struck again, setting the school into a depression once more. Harry and his fellow second years, being lead by Prof. Sprout were heading towards the Defense room when, turning a corner, they were all shocked by what they saw. Both the Fat Friar and Cedric Diggory were petrified on the floor.

"Cedric!" Harry called, him, Neville, Daphne, and the rest of the Hufflepuffs ran forward, Sprout unable to hold all of them back. The day was full of depression. Classese were canceled as they were all once more taken to the great Hall to mourn another student's petrification and be retold the importance of staying together and with a teacher. The only good side of the month was the Slytherin vs. Ravenclaw quidditch match. Which Slytherin won. Not that it was much of a spirit lifter. The students came close to hexing Lockhart when he went on and on about how poor Cedric would have been safe had he been around. Had he left Lockharts office later. When it was learned that Lockhart had allowed Cedric to leave his office alone, no one was happy.

It was thanks to the Wayward Souls that the students got payback. Lockhart stayed locked up in his office for several days afterwards, and it was the student with the best grade on the class that taught the other students. So when the end of the month came along, and second years had to start chosing their electives for next year, it was difficult to make a decission. Especially since many were wondering if there would even be a next year. With the way things were going, none of them were too sure.

A/N: Here it is. The April chapter. Chapter 11: May is done and will be posted with in the next week or two. I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter's humor and fluff. The next chapter has some more excitement and danger in it. R&R please! And thanks for sticking with me for so long.


	11. Chapter 11

A/N: I am so so so sorry for such a late update! I moved and only just got internet. I havethis book finished and should be able to post the next chapter at a later date. I am also working on a couple other stories, so the third installment may take a while to be put up. THank you so much for being so patient with me. Please enjoy and R&R.

Chapter 11: May

May began with warm weather and beautiful skies, not that the inhabitants of Hogwarts really noticed. The atmosphere around the castle was still full of fear and melancholy after the latest attack, which showed that not even the ghosts of the castle was safe. Add on that they were all furiously studying for the end of year exams, as that was still on the agenda, no one really had the time to enjoy the nice weather as they resided in the library for the most part. The only upside of the days were when the Wayward Souls would pull a prank. It always lightened up the mood. For a little while, at least.

HHS HHS

Aragog's POV

Evil was once more permeating the woods. More of his children were being killed. He couldn't stop it, stuck as he was in the nest. The large, old achromantula froze when he sensed it in his woods. It was a small, child-like form. Yet it radiated evil and darkness, once it entered the Forbidden Forest. The thing had been showing up more and more over the past few weeks. It was almost every night that the figure entered once more. Aragog flinched when he sensed another child lost as a dark fire engulfed his child. 'It is unsafe for my children here, but we can not leave. I can only pray that Harry, Bast, and their friends are able to stop this evil. And I can only pray the students are safe in the castle.' Aragog sighed, as he and his nest mourned yet another child lost.

Severus's POV

The dark haired professor watched his son, who was asleep in his dorm for a few minutes before sighing and leaving the dorm. In his own rooms, he poured a small glass of fire whiskey. Harry was hiding things from him. Again. Just like last year. Severus groaned as he put his head in his hands. It hurt so much, that his own son was keeping things from him. He remembered when Harry told him everything. When he confided in him when he was worried aboubt something.

'What happened Harry?' he wondered. 'Why were you in that forest? Why are you keeping so much from me? Where do you go at night? What do you do when you go off on your own?' he knew Harry was leaving the common room and dorms late at night. He knew when a student from his house left it. Of course he did, it was his job to know. Yet he was never able to catch him in the act. Something always kept him from entering the damn rooms until Harry was back and asleep. Severus downed what was left in his drink before heading to his office to grade the third year papers. He wasn't going to get any sleep tonight. Not with his train of thought. He sighed heavily as he felt the spark in his magic, signalling a child left the dorms once more. He had just missed him. DAMNIT!

Lucius's POV

The Malfoy Patriarch was in his study reading Harry's latest letter. Harry had admitted to the dangers happening at the school. He said that he told his dad, as promised. Some how, Lucius really doubted the boy did though. If it might worry those he cared for or put them in danger, he would take what ever it was to the grave or until the danger passed. Other than this, Harry let him know how his studies and friends were doing. Lucius had read Draco's letter first.

Draco was worried about Harry. He was keeping secrets from them again, and they couldn't help but think it had something to do with what was happening at the school. 'He won't tell us, and it's probably because it's dangerous. Why does Hade have such a little sense of self perservation? We're all worried. And I've never seen Uncle Severus so stressed. We're worried, and don't know what to do.' was one part of the letter. Lucius sighed as his wife entered.

"it's late, honey." Narcissa told him, picking up the letters. She too had read them, and was worried about her boys and their friends.

"I know, Cissa. It's just a lot is going on. I'm worried for the boys. I know Severus can keep them safe, but the teachers are so busy and stretched out so thin between their lessons, their leading the students around, and everything else." Lucius explained.

"You're wondering if we should take Darco out for a while and convince Severus to let Harry come with?" Narcissa asked, though she had a feeling. Lucius nodded.

"It'd be useless though. Harry would stay, because he's in the middle of all of this, and he won't leave if it means some of the students will be in danger. Honestly, that child is probably the only person in the school with any ideas as to what's going on. And you know our son as well as I do. He won't leave if Harry stays." Narcissa gave a sigh. It was very true.

"Let us go to bed darling. We can come up with something in the morning to help the children." Lucius nodded and joined his wife in going to bed.

Harry's POV

He silently entered the bathroom. And with a quick spell, Tom's form from the diary joined him, Bast, Nagi, and Myrtle in the bathroom. This spell had a large magic cost, not too bad for Harry, but it still left him slightly drained. They got down to business. They made their plans.

"Me and Nagi will be searching the forest once more. I got word from Aragog. Another of his children were recently lost. He says that the figure of dark magic and evil has been showing up almost every night in the forest." Bast explained.

"Aragog believes it's planning something?" Tom asked. Bast nodded.

"So he's almost done and will be on the move soon." Harry and Myrtle figured.

"Which means everyone must be careful. What ever this thing's been planning all year, it's about to come to fruitition." Tom told the group. It was only a few more minutes of ironing things out before they were finished with their plans and went their seperate ways, Tom's form accompanying Harry back to the Slytherin dorms, where he took down the barrier his magic made once Harry fell back asleep. He watched as Harry's father, Severus Snape entered and checked his son for injuries. Once he was sure Harry was fine, he ran a hand through his son's hair with a sigh.

"I wish you would talk to me Harry. Like when you were a kid. Guess teenage rebellion came a year early for you, huh? Just, be careful." Severus sighed, before kissing his son's forehead and leaving the room. Tom watched the interaction, feeling like he had witnessed something extremely personal.

'Don't worry Severus,' Tom thought. 'We'll do our best to make sure he stays safe.' with that, Tom left.

HHS HHS

No Pov

Bast and Nagi headed to the forest. It was time for them to start their search. Meanwhile, Myrtle continued her patrol of the castle. She had told the other ghosts to keep an eye on things. Though she only told the Bloody Baron and the Grey Lady about what was happening and they had agreed to keep an eye on Ichiro.

Harry was running as fast as he could. He had had to go back to collect his DADA books, as useless as they were. Then he had to go around to avoid Peeves prank and booby trap. He entered the DADA classroom, and felt dread in his system as he saw the look on Lockhart's face when he entered. Every student was worried. No one liked the look on the mans face.

"Too good to be on time to class, Mr. Snape?" Lockhart made a tut tut noise. "Detention, Mr. Snape, tonight at 8:30 after dinner. That should give you enough time to eat. I will see you then. Now sit down so the rest of the class can start learning." Lockhart told him with a sneer.

Harry snapped. 'Since I'm going to detention any ways...' Harry thought. "Professor Lockhart, had I ever told you I _love_ your books?" Harry asked sweetly, as every one tensed and Lockhart's eyes narrowed at the sarcasm on that one word.

"Is that so, Mr. Snape?"

"Absolutely. I love reading books that are nothing but the authors dilusional ramblings and plageristic tall tales. I mean, to think you could do any of that is quite fantastical. Fantasy was always my favorite genre." Harry said, a grin on his face. Lockhart's smile turned even darker and smugger.

"Make that detention for the rest of the week, Mr. Snape. We can discuss how much you LOVE my books during that week. And the next week if you wish to continue those critics of yours."

"Of course professor. And while we're at it, we can talk about how wonderful your BWL is, and how your fame pales in comparisons to his." Harry added, the sarcasm and loathing dripping from his toungue. Lockhart's chuckle made all the students but Harry shiver.

"Your sarcasm is quite pronounced, Mr. Snape. Must be something you picked up from your father. Let's begin class, shall we?" Lockhart asked the boy.

"Of course Prof. Don't want to keep the class from your mediocre teachings. Allow us to get started. We are supposed to be learning about your adventure with the Walla Walla Werewolf today, correct?" Harry asked, voice dripping with the rediculousness he felt towards that stement.

"Yes. Glad you can pay attention. Let's start class!" Lockhart said, ending his and Harry's verbal war. Harry sat next to his friends and class began.

After class, Harry's friends pounced on him. "What were you thinking Harry? What made you re-act like that?"

"Do you know the ammo you gave the fraud?"

"He's going to make the next week HELL for you."

All of his friends growled. He knew they were worried, but also didn't regret what he did. It had felt too good. Besides, he felt that something was up with the man, and he had a feeling he could figure it out during this next week. "Sorry, I just snapped is all. I need to control my temper a little better." Harry sighed. The group grumbled and they went to lunch. It was going to be a long week for Harry.

That night, Harry was forced to help the man address his fan mail. It was pure torture as he did as asked and neatly wrote out the addresses. As he did so, he asked the professor about his travels. Even if the man was a fraud, he would have had to travel to get these stories. Of course, Lockhart was suspicious, but as a natural born narcissist, he complied to his request.

So Harry listened, storing the information in his head to the man's whereabouts. "My my Harry. It's late. You should head off to your common room." Lockhart told the boy. Harry nodded and fled from the room. He barely made it back to the common room before curfew. As the week continued, Harry continued to do the detentions set out for him by the man, wether it was addressing fan mail, or going around and cleaning the man's office and classroom. And in continuation, Harry continued to ask about where he had gone.

It was the end of the week and his last detention when things finally clicked and he got the information he needed. "Best hurry off boy, it's just about curfew." Lockhart said seeing the time. Harry looked and in alarm ran from the room. He continued to run until he was sure he was a safe distance from the man's room and himself.

There was information that he had learned about the last place Voldemort had been seen. And considering how the man last year talked about wondering how Voldie was reforming, it only made sense that he would be looking for said wizard. The man's last travel was in Albania, where Voldemort had last been. Not only that, but Ichiro's family came from there. It was also the last known location reporting strange black cloud wisps. That could only mean a few things. He sighed in relief when he felt that Bast and Nagi were back from the forest. Then he tensed as he felt a new presence behind him, before he only knew darkness.

HHSHHS

Throughout the castle, magic surged as the Castle felt Harry's peril. Nagini felt that Harry was in danger by the sudden un-awareness of his wizard. Harry was always an awareness for Nagi due to their connection. He tensed in alarm and hissed dangerously. Bast felt it as Harry was the Heir, and thus he knew of the heirs condition. Harry had been rendered unconcious suddenly. Tom of course felt it due to his bond with Harry through their connection as Harry had been using him, besides, he was still on Harry's person in a hidden pocket. He hated that he could do nothing to help the boy.

They immediately went off. Bast immediately headed for the grounds to see if he could intercept anyone. Nagi raced to where he knew his wizard's father was. Severus was startled by Nagi's sudden entrance into his chambers, but immediately knew something was wrong. Nagi hissed urgently. "Where's Harry?" Severus asked desperately. There was a flash image of Harry being made unconcious, and the forest. In a flurry of motion, Severus grabbed his potions kit and left his office.

Tom didn't know exactly where they were, and he couldn't materialize by himself, so he did the best thing he could in that moment. He alerted his creator to the boy's distress and danger. He was still connected to his creator, as he was a part of the man's soul. And only prayed that Voldemort could do anything, before Harry was hurt.

Far away, in a Slytherin ancestoral home, a pale and sickly looking human gave a pained gasp as he felt the sudden alert of danger from one of the horcruxes he hadn't yet retrieved. His body was formed but his entire essence was weak. His magic and physicality. He did the only thing he could do. Too weak to go himself, he sent a message to Lucius. The man would get there in time to help Harry.

Lucius shot out of his seat in shock at the jolt from his mark. Narcissa looked up in concern. Lucius didn't really notice, too concerned by the images that assulted his mind. Harry unconcious and hurt. A dark shadow, and the forbidden forest. "Harry's in trouble." Lucius informed his wife.

"Go. I'll floo over after informing the elves of their chores." Narcissa ensured him. Lucius nodded and he went to an apparation point in the house that was heavily gaurded. He apparated right out side of Hogwarts. He quickly walked through the gate, and ended up running into Severus.

"How did you know Lucius?" Severus asked, curious only second handedly.

"Our lord sent me a message." Lucius answered as they followed Harry's familiar towards the forest. They halted in their shock as they saw a large snake. A baskilisk and a ghost girl.

"Don't worry, Bast's protective eyelids are down. You have no need to fear death or paralyzation. But our time is short for introduction. I'm Myrtle. This is Bast, from the Chamber of Secrets and we are both friends of Harry's. We will be meeting another deeper in the forest. He will lead us to where Harry is being kept." Myrtle told them seriously. The two adults nodded in surprise and quickly followed the ghosts and two snakes into the dark forest. The two adults were once more shocked when they came to a stop at an achromantula nest.

"What did my son get into this year?" Severus asked his friend faintly.

"Shouldn't you know?" Lucius asked dryly. Severus gave the man a slight glare before bringing their attention to the nest.

"Aragog, I have Harry's father and his friend's father here with us." Bast told the old, white, blind spider.

"You must hurry. Three figures enterd our forest shortly ago. A man and two children, one of who was unconcious. That was Harry, I would recognize his bright aura anywhere. My children will lead you to where they are staying. Hurry." Aragog told them. The group thanked them before starting to follow the children. "When Harry is better, I would like for you to bring him to me. I would like to know he's okay personally. And he expressed intrest in learning more about my species. There is still much he could learn." Aragog told them. Severus sighed.

"I will of course accompany him." Severus and Bast said.

"That is accpetable." Aragog said. And the group left. They didn't realized as the time rang out midnight.

HHSHHS

Harry groaned as he came back to conciousness. He tried to move, but felt his hands secured to a pole behind him. His eyes snapped open as he remembered leaving the DADA class and the darkness. He looked around and felt all the blood drain from his face.

In this one room shack was an alter. A legit alter for making sacrifices from hundreds of years ago, before the darker rituals in the wizarding world were outlawed. He looked around in alarm as he searched for the ones who brought him here. He froze when he saw both Ichiro and Lockhart. Only Ichiro had a strange symbol on his face. 'Possessed.' Harry's mind supplied for him. "Finally decided to join us, Harry?" a dark, old, and evil voice asked, coming from the boy in front of him. Harry shivered at that voice.

"Who are you?" Harry asked.

"Very well, if you must know, my name is Shadra. I was around before even Merlin and your school's founders. They sealed me though, and dispersed my magic where part of it later turned up in a half-blood, over 50 years ago. Almost 60. And again 12 years ago. I shortly broke out of my seal 11 to 12 years ago, with Lockhart's help of course." Shadra told him, face possessing an evil smirk.

"No way. So when he lied about his stories and what he did, he traveled to those places to do things for you." Harry asked, looking at Lockhart in disbelief. To think the fool had fooled him for so long. He didn't like being made a fool of.

"Yes. One of those things was to find a seer, who could tell me where my magic had gone, and how to re-claim what was mine. I was told something peculiar. Apparently my magic bonded with two half-bloods. A man named Tom Riddle. And a little baby named Harry Potter. Add to my surprise, when I learned of a prophecy involving the three of us. I of course decided to stop it before it could begin. I was hoping to beat Tom to you. Of course I arrived after him. I entered the room only to be caught in the re-bounding killing curse." Ichiro- Shadra, glared at the smaller boy in front of him.

"It didn't make sense to me at first. But then I realized it was the seperated power surging. MY, seperated power, surging. Only my own magic could hurt me, so it makes sense." he said thoughtfully.

"Why are you telling me all of this? Aren't you worried I'll use it against you?" Harry couldn't help but ask. Was the man stupid, telling him his weakness? Shadra gave a very dark smile.

"To regain my magic back from one of it's vessels, I need to perform a Black Ritual of Re-claiming. It will of course kill you. But I'll have over half my power back as well as my body, and it won't be too hard to find and re-claim my magic from Tom after that." Shadra said, nodding to Lockhart. It was time to begin the ritual as the midnight hour crept on them.

Lockhart grabbed Harry by his hair as he untied him. Harry tried to fight against the man, but Lockhart proved to be quite strong. Stronger than his appearance lead on. Harry felt helpless as Lockhart forced him onto the alter, quickly binding him with the sliver, metal ropes that were on the side. Harry felt panicked as the man brought out a silver dagger that had a pale green streak of poison on the blade with black magic swirling in a glowing crystal on the handle. Never had he been so afraid. Not even with the Dursleys.

Harry felt a scream pass his lips as pain went through his body as the blade carved into both his wrists. When the man finished the strange design of a triangle with a circle and line on either side of the triangle, a transferance rune inside the triangle, he looked to Shadra and nodded as Harry's magic started to weaken, Harry's tears burning his eyes. "It is time. Just speak the incantation and the ritual will start." Lockhart exlained, pulling his wand out and keeping it trained on the boy in caution. The possessed boy nodded. It was then realization hit Harry. He was just a kid! He should have gone to his father. He should have told him. Now he may never see any of his friends or family again. Why had he not trusted them? Tears rolled down his cheeks at the pain he was in from the black magic and poison that had coated the blade.

'Please! Help me someone!' Harry cried in his head. He wanted his dad now more than anything else. Suddenly, several things happened at once. A magical barrier burst into existence around Harry, just as Shadra said the first syllable of his incantation, and the door was blown off it's henges as Myrtle(who had connected herself to Bast), Bast, Nagi, Severus, and Lucius burst into the shack. Severus sent a curse at Lockhart, while Lucius cast a body-binder curse at Ichiro. As Ichiro fell back, a dark mist flew out of his body. The mist rushed at Lockhart who gave a blood curdling cry of pain before falling to the ground, and then disappeared out into the forest, Nagi and Bast hot on it's trail. Only for them to lose it's track at a chasm.

Back in the shack, the barrier fell away from Harry, and he fell unconcious. The adults rushed to the boy on the alter, where they saw the runes carved onto his wrists, and the silver rope that had burned into his skin. "Oh Harry." Severus gasped, pure agony in his voice as he noticed the runes were still draining his son's magic to keep him weak and bound. As he realized the pain his child was in, even in his sleep. As he thought of the pure terror that the tear tracks on his bruised and dirtied cheeks. He saw the blade, and what it meant. He cursed as he brought out many potion filled vials. Severus had to work quickly to introduce many of the concoctions into Harry's system to neutralize the poison and disperse the black magic in his son's body. Trying to stabelize him. When Harry stopped breathing though, Severus's blood ran cold, and Lucius had to take over to get the boy who was like a second son to him to breath once more.

Once they finally got him breathing and stablized, they rushed to the castle with the two boys, Myrtle having gone on a head to warn Pomfrey of the work that she was going to need to do. The moment they set foot into the castle, Minerva, Flitwick, and Sprout were already there. They rushed up to the Hostpital Wing where, after Ichiro was seen to be fine, they set to work on Harry. But it wasn't looking good, even with all of the heads working desperately to keep him in their world.

Since Severus wasn't going to be leaving, as he was helping to purify the boy's body, mind, and magic, Lucius felt it was up to him to inform Slytherin and the boy's friends of what was going on. He got permission from the heads and went to the common rooms. Before long he was in the slytherin common room, with Granger, Knott, Greengrass, Longbottom, the Weasley twins and Lee present. It was with a heavy heart that he informed them of what had taken place in the past hour and a half. The silence was deafening as they waited for news on their smallest member. It was almost dawn when a ragged and exhausted Severus entered the common room. Everyone was immediately awake and looking with pleading eyes at their head.

"Harry suffered a great amount of damage to his being. The creature that did this used a very old and powerful black magic ritual. We lost Harry two more times since we started working on him." Severus began. All the girls were in tears, and the boys were barely doing better. All of the first and second years had tears on their cheeks. "We were only able to stabalize him an hour ago. He's going to be unconcious for a while. Probably a couple weeks. He'll live though." Severus told them, struggling to stay standing. Lucius went over and supported most of the man's weight. It wasn't much. "Once he's awake though, he will be weak. The ritual used makes it impossible to replenish the lost magic, magically. We are lucky he's still with us now. If that creature had been able to speak the needed incantation, we would have a funeral. We don't though. Thank Merlin and Lady Magic for that."

The students gave relieved sighs. Their friend and fellow snake would still be with them. "While this is good news, there is still the fact that Harry will probably be weak for the rest of the school year. I ask all of you to keep an eye out for Harry. Don't hover, I doubt he'll take that well. Just keep an eye out for him, and your ears on the floor. There are others in this school who wouldn't hesitate to attack Harry now that he can't defend himself physically or magically." every one knew that he meant those in Gryffindor who were still sided with Liam after what he had done in the last potions class. "If you see or hear anything, come to me. I will deal out punishment my self." Severus told them. And even leaning slightly on Mr. Malfoy, the man still possessed that air about him that said 'DO NOT CROSS ME!'

"Yes sir." they all replied. He nodded.

"I am going back to Harry's side. You may start visiting him tomorrow. For now I suggest you all go get some breakfast, and then get some more sleep." He looked at all of them and said sincerely. "Thank you, for being strong." and with that, Lucius lead Severus back to his son. Things were tense as May faded into June. Not even the news that the attacks were over perked many up. When they learned about the mandrakes though, that cheered them up, but only slightly as they realized that the restored would be waking up to find out that Harry, someone that the majority of the school liked, was in a magical coma once more. June was sunny and hot. And it was to the warm sunlight that Harry woke up, almost a full week into June. Two weeks after that night.


	12. Chapter 12

A/N: Sorry about the short chapter, but I had little else to go into this chapter. Sorry for the wait and I hope you enjoy. Please review!

Chapter 12: June

Harry groaned as he came to. He opened his eyes, only to shut them once more as the sunlight stung. "Harry?" several voices asked in worry and alarm. That woke him up pretty quickly.

He looked around to see his dad, Uncle Lucius, and his friends. 'Oh man.' he was definately in touble. He just knew it. Then he saw Cedric and beamed. The petrified students were back! He looked at all of their relieved faces.

"How are you feeling, son?" Severus asked. Harry felt guilt eat at him immediately as he realized how tired and stressed all of them were.

"I feel a lot more rested, than usual. And I only feel a little sore." he answered in a small voice. They nodded.

"Now, why don't you tell us what in Merlin's name happened this year?" Severus's voice was tight, making Harry cast his gaze down. "Please Harry. You've made us so worried all year, you can at least answer these questions." Severus said. He didn't want to guilt his son, but he also knew that he needed to know the answers.

Harry took a deep breath before speaking the spell, and then they were all alarmed as Tom's younger self appeared. "It's a long story." Harry told them. And so, with Myrlte's help as she showed up to check on him, they told the group everything they had learned. Harry being Slytherin's Heir. Finding the Chamber of Secrets. THe horcrux in the diary. Everything they had found out and discovered. Once Harry had finished, the majority of the day had passed and they were all in varying states of anger and disbelief.

"Know that you are definately grounded." Severus told him. Harry nodded, looking away. "But again, you've made me proud. Let's not have a repeat of this." Severus told him, pulling the boy into a hug. Harry nodded. But once more, he didn't verbalize his words.

"We have more to tell you, but it can wait until summer." Tom told them. They nodded, though curious about what it was.

"Aragog has asked me to take you to him. We will go before school is out." Severus told the boy. Harry smiled excitedly and nodded. Madam Pofrey came over to check on Harry once more, before saying that he could leave, but to be careful. He was still magically and physically weak. "Dinner is begining in the great hall. Shall we go?" Severus asked after Harry got changed. The group nodded and they headed for the grat hall.

Once entering, the hall erupted in cheers as they saw Harry was finally awake. Harry blushed at their attention and after some long moments, things had finally settled. It was towards the end of dinner that Dumbledore stood and addressed the great hall.

"Students, there is much to celebrate now. The students and ghosts who have been attacked are back among us. The attacks have finally stopped. And one of our much loved students are finally out of their long coma." Harry and the others could hear the tenseness in the man's voice at that. "We still have our last quidditch match to look forwards too tomorrow as well. And as a treat, no exams will take place this year!" Several students erupted into cheers at this, though Harry, Theo, and Hermione were all a bit upset at that. All that extra studying gone to waste.

"It has come to our attention, that these petrifications had nothing to do with the myth of the Chamber, and it is still believed to be a legend. In fact, it was Lockhart, under possession of Voldemort that was responsible for these attacks. He used a great and dark magic. But, he was left for dead by the very wizard he served. Once more, things are peaceful within our halls." the crowd cheered, though the loudest were the Gryffindors.

THe last two weeks of school passed in a lazy fashion. The Ravenclaws beat the Gryffindors in quidditch, but the Slytherins were the winners of the Quidditch cup. Severus and Bast took Harry to Aragog as promised, and Bast decided that he would remain in the forest to help the achromantula keep watch over the forest. Harry was amazed at how two previous enemies were reconciled as friends.

Ichiro, as it turned out, had no memories of the entire school year. His parents made the decision to home school him, concerned with their son's memory loss. The last night at the school, at the feast, it was made known that Slytherin had, once more, won the house cup. They partied late into the night and finally, the last day arrived. Climbing onto the train, Harry looked back at the castle. He couldn't wait for next year. He hoped it would be calmer than this one, though.

He'd just have to get through the summer and find out. With a grin, he joined his friends for a round of wizards chest as the train rushed down the tracks, on the way home.

HHSHHHS

Dumbledore watched the train as it disappeared from his office. Severus's child had once more been in the center of things. Severus had given him his son's story. Lockhart had been belittling him through out the year to gain Liam Potter's trust, knowing of their rivalry. He had been hoping to get Liam that night, but Liam's parents suddenly kept him with them. When Lockhart realized it, he got angry and decided to take it out on Harry, deciding to gain some bit of magic to sustain himself for the rest of the year, as his normal means were extenguished.

Blue eyes turned away from the window. He had a feeling, that that story wasn't accurate. Voldemort was smarter than that. He knew he was. 'Unless his insanity has compromised him. If that's the case, we'll just need to be more careful. IT would explain why I haven't been able to predict his next move. Should I keep an eye on Harry?' he wondered. Dumbledore shook his head. 'If he did that, Voldemort would surely use that moment to go after the chosen one.' Dumbledore sat down, steepling his fingers. 'But maybe that would be the push needed to jump start LIam's magical prowress.' Dumbledore sighed. He'd just have to wait and see. 'What else would get his power to awaken?' he thought. Suddenly his eyes brightened. 'Just maybe, it would help if I called them in.' with a plan set in mind, Dumbledore happily ate one of his lemonheads. 'This can't fail.' he thought giddily.

In three different locations in the world, three people( Harry, a wereworlf, and a grim animagus) shivered as magic tingled over them. A message that much was to change, and to prepare themselves. Something was coming over the horizon.


End file.
